The structural process of making decisions has a high probability of conflict and hostility if the process does not work. Most ideas do not survive the decision process—sometimes none of them do. All participants have their ideas rejected or changed substantially. Whether this is a positive or negative experience depends on whether the participants believe that they were heard. It is the process and the people that determine whether the participants believe they were heard. This is amplified in the rare cases where the decision is a choice rather than a development. All of the non-selected ideas and their champions will feel rejection unless they buy-in to the process, and agree with the ultimate choice.

This leads to the Diversity Paradox: Increased diversity always leads to more ideas that do not survive the process, and thus more potential conflict. Value Management is a reliable, and robust process that channels diverse teams to reach a common understanding of needs without reference to the current solution. Facilitated VM specializes in inclusion of diverse stakeholder ideas to solve big problems.

In Value Management, a series of analytical and creative steps overcomes the Diversity Paradox, team members become flexible in perspective, welcome new ideas and reach agreement on new solutions with consensus.