Reaching agreement – Beyond the idea of "knocking heads together…."

We all know people who think they are skilled at “knocking heads together” – and very useful they are too for those occasions when deep seated intransigence or sheer obstinacy prevents issues from moving forward.

True skills of consensus-building are vastly more subtle than the brute-force variety macho managers sometimes employ, and these skills need to be developed and nurtured in most large-scale organisations that need to deal with significant conflicts of interests.