Foreward
By Pierre Gagnon
Former CEO Mitsubishi Motors of North America
My years at Saturn and Mitsubishi taught me that inclusive leadership
is one of the most powerful tools in business today. The command and
control model of management is now obsolete. In today's complex business
environment, there has never been a greater need for including others
in critical decisions. Yet, I have found very few business leaders
who are comfortable with the notion of deciding by consensus. They
feel they are giving up power and prestige. Having used the consensus
approach for more than a decade, I strongly believe that consensus
decision-making yields higher quality and higher commitment decisions.
It is not, however, a process that is easily implemented. To make
it work, a leader must have a deep-rooted, fundamental belief that
broader participation in decision-making yields much higher quality
decisions and incredibly faster execution. I was fortunate to learn
the process at Saturn, but truly experienced the unbelievable power
of consensus at Mitsubishi.
When I arrived at Mitsubishi in April 1997, I found a fragmented company
with an unclear brand identity, disappointing product quality and
an adversarial relationship with dealers. It's no wonder the company
had lost money for ten consecutive years in North America. I was informed
a month after joining the company that the Japanese parent company
was seriously considering pulling out of America. Needless to say,
I felt an enormous sense of urgency to change the business fundamentals
of the US based company. We immediately formed twelve change teams
to tackle the critical areas of the business from product quality
to brand development. I urgently needed to fully leverage the talents
of the best and brightest in the organization. I needed to make them
part of the solution, not part of the problem. I needed their buy-in
in order to execute faster. We were running out of time. That's when
I was introduced to Larry Dressler. The author was tireless and relentless
in helping us implement a consensus decision-making process at the
company. Our first session with the Regional Marketing Council took
36 hours to reach consensus on a dramatically new direction. Larry
was masterful in facilitating the entire session. Somehow he was able
to flush out the best ideas and inspire everyone to seek the best
possible outcome for the company. He uncovered hidden agendas, crafted
proposals and led us to consensus. A high level of commitment ensued,
and the rest is history. Looking back, it was our toughest session
in the entire change process. Larry subsequently implemented the consensus
decision model in all twelve change teams and the newly formed National
Dealer Advisory Board. It was amazing to see the process work. By
putting the right people in the room to have the right conversations
and to go beyond agreeing - to actually commit together - we experienced
the power of consensus building. Mitsubishi Motors' North American
operations subsequently flourished with five consecutive record years
of profits, increasing revenue by 94 %, and establishing all time
sales and market share records. We went from making decisions in a
vacuum and operating in silos to a company that was unified, aligned,
effective and profitable.
The book "Consensus through Conversation: How to Achieve High
Commitment Decisions", was written by an author who has real
life experience in planning and implementing a consensus decision-making
process at a major automotive company. Not only does he fully understand
the concept; he knows what it takes to implement the process in a
real world situation.