A tool for reaching consensus in important meetings

Have you ever left an important meeting and felt that the meeting went okay? If so, what if you were wrong? What if those in attendance were just being polite and unwilling to tell you how they truly felt? If these questions describe your management style, perhaps you should consider another alternative. Here is my suggestion:

1. Begin with the commitment to always know exactly how your meeting attendees feel on important matters
2. Invest in a pack of post-it notes
3. Circulate a post-it (s) on all important matters to be discussed
4. Ask attendees to rate each important matter from 0 to 10 with 0 being the lowest possible score and 10 being the highest possible score
5. On each matter, add the total number of points given for each topic and divide that number by the number of attendees
6. By doing so, you will have an average score on each important matter
7. Circling back to my initial question about leaving an important meeting feeling that it was okay – by using post-its, what if the average score on a post-it was (5), how would you feel? Would you feel that 5 was okay? Would you not begin to dig deeper to learn more about why the average score was not higher?