Everybody appears to think that management by consensus is the way to build a successful company. I get this advice from every possible direction. And who could disagree – you forge a consensus on your direction, strategy and every key issue, and then you have everyone pulling together with unified enthusiasm in the same direction. Who could argue with that?

I’m out. It doesn’t work and never will. People don’t all agree with each other, and when they all do, that is the best possible sign that you are all going in the wrong direction.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s crucial to put everything on the table for absolutely everyone to see. And I am all for vigorous, passionate, all out debates. Everybody gets their say in a respectful but very energetic atmosphere. But then a decision needs to get made, and you can’t have everyone holding a veto.

First, people don’t like change and are often threatened by it (sometimes justifiably, sometimes not). If you are going to introduce real change, you will never get consensus. Second, if you do push for a consensus, the necessary compromise to get everyone to sign on will be profound, and likely fatal to the original initiative. Consensus can be good, it can never be great. In fact, the best, transformational decisions are always the most controversial.

Looking back, here are some things would not exist today if consensus was a prerequisite for moving forward:

Far better to take risks, to make mistakes - to have your reach exceed your grasp - than to suffer the eternal mediocrity of ‘consensus management’. This is a concept that needs to be slain.

Just one person’s view. Think we can get a consensus on that?

Many of you will remember that, several years ago, when a devastating Tsunami hit Indonesia, Malaysia, and India, the people at EllisDon responded immediately. Within just a few days, we had pledged donations from around the company totaling over $40,000, which the company then matched, and which we quickly and carefully dispersed in order to ensure that every dollar went to aid those who needed it.

We have all seen this week the devastation in Haiti. It"s unspeakable. Surely, we need to act again, and in the least, repeat our past efforts, this time for the citizens of Haiti. I don"t have the answers, and am happy to get suggestions. But I understand that the federal government is willing to match all private donations. And EllisDon is willing to match every dollar donated by our employees. We will again strive to ensure that every dollar goes directly to Haitians in need.

Unarguably, we are all living very fortunate lives. Our goal is to get EllisDon"s total over $100,000 this time around so that with the government we can make a $200,000 difference. It will go a long way.

Haiti. It’s Time to Help

This is just a simple blog about the second most important thing that I finally figured out about business.

Everybody thinks the construction business is a poker game, a contest of wits, a never ending price cutting duel with your competitors. Hide the money, outsmart the other one, be the smartest person in the room.

I’m thinking not so much (though brains are certainly of vital importance). We have three or four projects right now that are among the most profitable we have ever undertaken. If all of our projects were nearly as profitable as these, I would be enjoying a massage on a very large estate in Tahiti right now instead of typing.

What these three projects have in common is that from the outset, we shared every bit of information with our clients and their teams. Every dollar and every detail. They knew everything we knew, and everything we didn’t know, and about every dollar of our profit.

For sure, we have outstanding people on these projects, otherwise we’d be dead and gone. And there were certainly some intense negotiations, because we guarantee our performance commitments. But the negotiations were conducted with every bit of known information out front and on the table.

It’s all about complete openness, every detail and every dollar. That’s where the client loyalty lays, the financial rewards, and the future opportunities. (It also works in lawsuits and marriages, but the lawyers will never tell you that.)

Wish I’d learned that a lot earlier, though Tahiti would probably get boring after a while.

The Fatal Attraction of Consensus Management

Transform

Design

Operate

Advise

Equip

Manage

Construct

Finance

Digitize