Range Of Tolerance
The band inside which a member can live with a decision that is not what they would have chosen — the space between preference and objection.
Every person has three zones around any proposal: what they would choose, what they can live with, and what they cannot accept. Consent is defined against the middle one: a proposal has consent when it falls inside everyone's range of tolerance as the body advances toward its aim. Naming that band is what lets a group of sovereign people decide anything at all.
It is load-bearing because without it, consent collapses into either unanimity of preference — where nothing passes — or politeness, where people swallow real objections because they lack the language for this is not my choice and I can carry it. Range of tolerance gives that language, and with it a way to distinguish the two things members owe the body: Meaningful Objection when the aim is at risk, and generous tolerance when it is not.
It also explains dissonance. The closer a proposal comes to the wise right thing, the more harmony surrounds it; the more out of tune it is, the more dissonance is felt, until it falls outside someone's range altogether. So a rising chorus of discomfort is data about the proposal, not about the people feeling it — and a member who does not consent may require improvement until the proposal is inside everyone's band.
In play, the useful move is to ask it directly rather than infer it: is this inside your range, or is it an objection? The question separates grumbling from a stop signal, and most groups find the honest answer is inside, and I would like it noted.
Also called: tolerance band Stands on: Consent · Meaningful Objection · Wisdom · Discernment Opens onto: Consent-Based Decision-Making · Proposal · Holding Paradox · Navigating Difference · Decision Making In play: table — asked aloud in the deciding round Sources: Range of Tolerance (root page, unmarked) · Consent (root page) · Meaningful Objection (root page) · THE DNA OF HEAVEN Part IV (states: Fable synthesis, unreviewed) · lionsberg.wiki: Range of Tolerance Open: The root page defines range of tolerance broadly, as a group's capacity to accept differing ideas, perspectives, and approaches — a diversity posture. Consent and the seed use it narrowly, as the band around a single proposal. Both senses are live; this page leads with the deciding sense, which is the one consent depends on.