Consensus building: How to persuade a group

 

Abstract
Many decisions in private and public organizations are made by groups. The
paper explores strategies that the sponsor of a proposal may employ to convince a
qualified majority of group members to approve the proposal. Adopting a mechanism
design approach to communication, it emphasizes the need to distill information
selectively to key members of the group and to engineer persuasion cascades
in which members who are brought on board sway the opinion of others. The paper
unveils the factors, such as the extent of congruence among group members
and between them and the sponsor, and the size and governance of the group,
that condition the sponsor’s ability to maneuver and get his project approved.
Keywords Group decision-making, selective communication, persuasion cascade,
internal and external congruence.