USING  THE  DELPHI  TECHNIQUE  TO  BUILD  CONSENSUS

How it is leading us away from representative government to an illusion of
citizen participation.

(Online at http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/1998/nov98/focus.html)


The Delphi Technique and consensus building are both founded on the same
principle - the Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis,
with synthesis becoming the new thesis. The goal is a continual evolution to
"oneness of mind" (consensus means solidarity of belief) -the collective
mind, the holistic society, the holistic earth, etc. In thesis and
antithesis, opinions or views are presented on a subject to establish views
and opposing views. In synthesis, opposites are brought together to form the
new thesis. All participants in the process are then to accept ownership of
the new thesis and support it, changing their views to align with the new
thesis. Through a continual process of evolution, "oneness of mind" will
supposedly occur.

In group settings, the Delphi Technique is an unethical method of achieving
consensus on controversial topics. It requires well-trained professionals,
known as "facilitators" or "change agents," who deliberately escalate
tension among group members, pitting one faction against another to make a
preordained viewpoint appear "sensible," while making opposing views appear
ridiculous.

In her book Educating for the New World Order, author and educator Beverly
Eakman makes numerous references to the need of those in power to preserve
the illusion that there is "community participation in decision-making
processes, while in fact lay citizens are being squeezed out."

The setting or type of group is immaterial for the success of the technique.
The point is that, when people are in groups that tend to share a particular
knowledge base, they display certain identifiable characteristics, known as
group dynamics, which allows the facilitator to apply the basic strategy.

The facilitators or change agents encourage each person in a group to
express concerns about the programs, projects, or policies in question. They
listen attentively, elicit input from group members, form "task forces,"
urge participants to make lists, and in going through these motions, learn
about each member of a group. They are trained to identify the "leaders,"
the "loud mouths," the "weak or non-committal members," and those who are
apt to change sides frequently during an argument.

Suddenly, the amiable facilitators become professional agitators and
"devil's advocates." Using the "divide and conquer" principle, they
manipulate one opinion against another, making those who are out of step
appear "ridiculous, unknowledgeable, inarticulate, or dogmatic." They
attempt to anger certain participants, thereby accelerating tensions. The
facilitators are well trained in psychological manipulation. They are able
to predict the reactions of each member in a group. Individuals in
opposition to the desired policy or program will be shut out.

The Delphi Technique works. It is very effective with parents, teachers,
school children, and community groups. The "targets" rarely, if ever,
realize that they are being manipulated. If they do suspect what is
happening, they do not know how to end the process. The facilitator seeks to
polarize the group in order to become an accepted member of the group and of
the process. The desired idea is then placed on the table and individual
opinions are sought during discussion. Soon, associates from the divided
group begin to adopt the idea as if it were their own, and they pressure the
entire group to accept their proposition.

How the Delphi Technique Works
Consistent use of this technique to control public participation in our
political system is causing alarm among people who cherish the form of
government established by our Founding Fathers. Efforts in education and
other areas have brought the emerging picture into focus.
In the not-too-distant past, the city of Spokane, in Washington state, hired
a consultant to the tune of $47,000 to facilitate the direction of city
government. This development brought a hue and cry from the local
population. The ensuing course of action holds an eerie similarity to what
is happening in education reform. A newspaper editorial described how groups
of disenfranchised citizens were brought together to "discuss" what they
felt needed to be changed at the local government level. A compilation of
the outcomes of those "discussions" influenced the writing of the
city/county charter.

That sounds innocuous. But what actually happened in Spokane is happening in
communities and school districts all across the country. Let's review the
process that occurs in these meetings.

First, a facilitator is hired. While his job is supposedly neutral and
non-judgmental, the opposite is actually true. The facilitator is there to
direct the meeting to a preset conclusion.

The facilitator begins by working the crowd to establish a good-guy-bad-guy
scenario. Anyone disagreeing with the facilitator must be made to appear as
the bad guy, with the facilitator appearing as the good guy. To accomplish
this, the facilitator seeks out those who disagree and makes them look
foolish, inept, or aggressive, which sends a clear message to the rest of
the audience that, if they don't want the same treatment, they must keep
quiet. When the opposition has been identified and alienated, the
facilitator becomes the good guy - a friend - and the agenda and direction
of the meeting are established without the audience ever realizing what has
happened.

Next, the attendees are broken up into smaller groups of seven or eight
people. Each group has its own facilitator. The group facilitators steer
participants to discuss preset issues, employing the same tactics as the
lead facilitator.

Participants are encouraged to put their ideas and disagreements on paper,
with the results to be compiled later. Who does the compiling? If you ask
participants, you typically hear: "Those running the meeting compiled the
results." Oh-h! The next question is: "How do you know that what you wrote
on your sheet of paper was incorporated into the final outcome?" The typical
answer is: "Well, I've wondered about that, because what I wrote doesn't
seem to be reflected. I guess my views were in the minority."

That is the crux of the situation. If 50 people write down their ideas
individually, to be compiled later into a final outcome, no one knows what
anyone else has written. That the final outcome of such a meeting reflects
anyone's input at all is highly questionable, and the same holds true when
the facilitator records the group's comments on paper. But participants in
these types of meetings usually don't question the process.

Why hold such meetings at all if the outcomes are already established? The
answer is because it is imperative for the acceptance of the School-to-Work
agenda, or the environmental agenda, or whatever the agenda, that ordinary
people assume ownership of the preset outcomes. If people believe an idea is
theirs, they'll support it. If they believe an idea is being forced on them,
they'll resist.

The Delphi Technique is being used very effectively to change our government
from a representative form in which elected individuals represent the
people, to a "participatory democracy" in which citizens selected at large
are facilitated into ownership of preset outcomes. These citizens believe
that their input is important to the result, whereas the reality is that the
outcome was already established by people not apparent to the participants.

How to Defuse the Delphi Technique

Three steps can defuse the Delphi Technique as facilitators attempt to steer
a meeting in a specific direction.

1. Always be charming, courteous, and pleasant. Smile. Moderate your voice
so as not to come across as belligerent or aggressive.

2. Stay focused. If possible, jot down your thoughts or questions. When
facilitators are asked questions they don't want to answer, they often
digress from the issue that was raised and try instead to put the questioner
on the defensive. Do not fall for this tactic. Courteously bring the
facilitator back to your original question. If he rephrases it so that it
becomes an accusatory statement (a popular tactic), simply say, "That is not
what I asked. What I asked was . . ." and repeat your question.

3. Be persistent. If putting you on the defensive doesn't work, facilitators
often resort to long monologues that drag on for several minutes. During
that time, the group usually forgets the question that was asked, which is
the intent. Let the facilitator finish. Then with polite persistence state:
"But you didn't answer my question. My question was . . ." and repeat your
question.

Never become angry under any circumstances. Anger directed at the
facilitator will immediately make the facilitator the victim. This defeats
the purpose. The goal of facilitators is to make the majority of the group
members like them, and to alienate anyone who might pose a threat to the
realization of their agenda. People with firm, fixed beliefs, who are not
afraid to stand up for what they believe in, are obvious threats. If a
participant becomes a victim, the facilitator loses face and favor with the
crowd. This is why crowds are broken up into groups of seven or eight, and
why objections are written on paper rather than voiced aloud where they can
be open to public discussion and debate. It's called crowd control.

At a meeting, have two or three people who know the Delphi Technique
dispersed through the crowd so that, when the facilitator digresses from a
question, they can stand up and politely say: "But you didn't answer that
lady/gentleman's question." Even if the facilitator suspects certain group
members are working together, he will not want to alienate the crowd by
making accusations. Occasionally, it takes only one incident of this type
for the crowd to figure out what's going on.

Establish a plan of action before a meeting. Everyone on your team should
know his part. Later, analyze what went right, what went wrong and why, and
what needs to happen the next time. Never strategize during a meeting.

A popular tactic of facilitators, if a session is meeting with resistance,
is to call a recess. During the recess, the facilitator and his spotters
(people who observe the crowd during the course of a meeting) watch the
crowd to see who congregates where, especially those who have offered
resistance. If the resistors congregate in one place, a spotter will
gravitate to that group and join in the conversation, reporting what was
said to the facilitator. When the meeting resumes, the facilitator will
steer clear of the resistors. Do not congregate. Instead gravitate to where
the facilitators or spotters are. Stay away from your team members.

This strategy also works in a face-to-face, one-on-one meeting with anyone
trained to use the Delphi technique.

Lynn Stuter, Education Researcher, Washington state.