Decision Making

We got had gotten back our grades on Wednesday and i was none to happy. The professor said that on Monday we would have a chance to appeal the grades and argue an answer we choose as long as we could back it up from the book. Well that sounded a bit better i thought, i should be able to move up a grade....no correction... i WILL be moving up a grade i asserted with confidence, not just with myself but with what i wrote and why i wrote it (after all i may not have read the slides but i certainly know what that $68 textbook said!). Not only did the professor said this but he was a bit secretive in what he said next....that we wouldn't want to miss Monday..hmm
On Monday all was revealed.The professor was going to let us decide what he should do with the grades we got (a curve, an extra credit question etc).we also got to gave inputs as to the format of upcoming exams. POWER!!!!! we had the whole period, over an hour, to come up with our proposal that the professor would look over and give us feedback if necessary so that we could make changes.easy right? the catch however was that EVERYONE had to 100% agree to EVERYTHING that we wrote in our proposal...o oo.
A self-selected student went up to preside over the proceedings, gathering our suggestions etc etc etc.from here on in,total pandemonium. There was about 8-10 majority voices that went back and forth as the rest of us looked on, from time to time turning to the person sitting next to us and commenting. why? because these voices' suggestions was in the favour of us all, there was nothing to lose and seemingly unending benefits to be had.
As time ticked by however there seemed to be no consensus in sight, except for the curve (which was given by the professor if we decided to accept) everthing else failed to get 100% vote,frustration grew and with it the voices of the minorities. In order for everyone to benefit everyone had to start compromising with on what they would be willing to accept. In the end i myself, quiet and laid back at first, just taking in everything, had to project my voice at what i felt was an unfair proposal based on the selfishness of a very few nameless individuals. why should what they want be given preference to what i want? was it because in the blink of an eye they went from being in their seats to infront the board with a marker?
At 7:05 there was no accepted decision and even quick strokes of the hands weren't enought to erase the parts people refuse to agree with in hopes of salvaging our proposal. talk about a lot of collaboration a little to late.However at that point i didnt care much,my grade wasn't THAT bad, i could live with it and myself for not being bullied into accepting someone else's dream/beneficial package.
As the professor was leaving those of us who did stay back, after most of the self-serving people left managed to 100% agree on a package in about 1 minute that was accepted by the professor.truthfully the agreement more than likely came about because of desperation...even just having the curve was MUCH better than nothing and everything else proposed.
the other way to handle our conflict in the class to get a more desirable outcome was to at the very begin work on majority collaboration of realistic proposals that were fair instead of wasting so much time on seemingly whatif analysis.