Field Note #046 | Consensus Is Not Agreement

Engineering the Intelligent Enterprise · Sep 21, 2026 · 38m

Everyone agreed. At least, that is what the minutes said.Six weeks later the decision is being executed four different ways by people who were all in the same room.---

This episode is about the gap between people believing a decision is right and people deciding the conversation is finished. Consensus is a property of a room. Agreement is a property of a person. You can see the first immediately. You cannot see the second until a habit has to die.---

In this episode:Why silence in meetings is economics rather than politics, and why "please speak up" does almost nothing about it.How…