Consensus management: giving up a little of the "I' and thinking of the "we'.

According to the Minister of Health, consensus management to some people, is like a red rag to a bull. At least that's what he intimated at a conference earlier this year to an audience of senior nurses. One is tempted to picture the scene with the matador administering the coup de gráce to the applause of a crowded arena. But John Pealing, district nursing officer, South East Staffs HD, asks who is the matador and is the sacred bull really dead?