← Strategy & Decisions
Consensus Ladder
RankingRemote or in person
Pairs agree, then fours, then eights. Watch where it stalls.
The same list is ranked by pairs, then by pairs of pairs, then by the whole room. Consensus gets exponentially harder at each step and the room feels exactly where it breaks — which is a far more memorable lesson about decision-making at scale than any slide about it.
Run this when…
The situations it was built for. If none of these is the room you have, it is probably the wrong activity.
- A session about how decisions get made at scale
- A team that struggles to reach agreement
- A governance or operating-model workshop
How it runs
Order a list alone, then as a team. The gap between the two is the debrief.
- 1You start a session and put the code on the big screen.
- 2Everyone joins on their phone — no app, no sign-up, just the code.
- 3You drive the pace from the host screen; the room answers as they go.
- 4Ending the session builds the report, with every answer in it.
Running it well
Only the host sees these. Participants never do.
- Keep the clock the same at every stage even though the groups double. The time pressure is what produces the insight.
- At the end, ask what they gave up to reach agreement. Most rooms discover they converged on the blandest option.
Run it yourself
Free for thirty days, no card. Add it, share the code, and your room is playing in about fifteen seconds.
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At a glance
- Players
- 8–64
- Runs for
- 15–25 min
- Where
- Remote or in person
- Big screen
- Required
- Teams
- Supported
- Best for
- Thinking together
What it builds
collaborationnegotiationdecision makingcommunication