As a freshman in the civil engineering program at the University of New Hampshire (a long, long time ago), I learned Isaac Newton’s law of motion, “A body in motion tends to stay in motion” and its corollary, “A body at rest tends to stay at rest.”

While Newton’s Laws of Motion, which were developed by this 17th century scientist, and governing may not seem to have much in common, my experience tells me that good governing bodies tend to stay good, and one of the key principles that they use to do so is “The Principle of One Voice.”

Group Power

In essence, this principle says that the power of the group is as a group and that no individual—even if he or she disagreed with and voted against the decision—has the ability to counteract the group. Further, the group accepts split decisions without rancor or concern because in ongoing good governance the group does not always have to (and even should not always) agree.

What I tell governing body members is that this does not mean that if they voted against a particular course of action that they have to become the spokesperson for the decision. It simply means that they cannot undermine or act contrary to the decision.

What they can certainly say to their constituents, the media, or others who might ask is something along the lines of, “As you know, I opposed this decision and voted against it. Now that the council has voted, however, in the interest of good governance, I will be supporting the decision as we move forward.”

If this sounds too perfect to be true, consider this. At a recent training for city councilmembers in the Wichita, Kansas, area sponsored by the Hugo Wall School, I was joined by a panel of successful mayors who shared their experiences in these matters. I heard a great story by Willis Heck, the former mayor of Newton, Kansas.

Mayor Heck talked about an exceedingly controversial item involving a shared facility with the school district that he spoke strongly against, going so far as to attend a school board public hearing to try to influence the decision. The community was sharply divided and after much debate, the school board and the city council, of which he was a member, voted to proceed with the endeavor. Willis voted against the motion.

After the vote, and when it was clear that the facility was indeed going to be shared, the council asked him to help negotiate the terms because in their words, “We think you have the best skills for this.” As Willis so simply put it when I asked him about that situation recently: “I, of course, did the best I could because that was the will of the majority!”

Group Wisdom

Another example came to me early in my career by one of the first mayors I worked with in Pittsburg, Kansas. After an extremely controversial decision in which he sided with staff and lost the vote, I asked him what his next course of action was going to be.

He looked straight at me and said, “Why, support the wisdom of the group of course. I learned long ago that I was going to win some and lose some. I didn’t prevail on the item today, but guess what? There always will be another item.”

When council can take this type of long view, you see good governance tending to stay good.

If councilmembers behave this way now, be sure to reinforce their behavior by pointing it out and complimenting it. Also be sure staff plays by this rule as well. If the council votes against the staff recommendation, even if you believe in your heart they were wrong, remember my early mayor’s admonition—there will always be another issue. Make sure council knows that you and the staff always follow the majority direction.

If your council does not adhere to the Principle of One Voice and you experience pushback, subterfuge, or outright defiance on the part of individual members, try to get good governance going by reminding them, privately at first and then publically if necessary, that the staff is duty bound to follow the will of the majority.

You also can point out that even though they disagree personally with the decision, it hurts the community to try to undermine it, and that it is in the best interest of all to look to the next issue, because there always will be one.

Group Support

Mayor Heck closed his story this way: “When I look back on my time as mayor, I can say that ensuring that both sides got a fair deal on that one issue brought me so much credibility that I was able to advance many other causes that were even dearer to me.

“Folks knew that I could be trusted to support the will of the council, irrespective of where I stood as mayor, and so were much more willing to listen to me than they otherwise might have been.”