Alejandro Puron recently encountered a dilemma in working with his employer’s diversity task force. One of the team members claimed that a task force must always be unanimous in its recommendations. “Otherwise,” she said, “we will not have a true consensus.” Alejandro, the current task force leader, disagrees. He believes that unanimity is desirable but not always necessary to achieve consensus.

Question You are a management consultant specializing in teams and teamwork.

Alejandro asks for advice. What would you tell him and why?