Consensus building or conflict prevention. This group of approaches, often linked to participatory planning methods or stakeholder participation, focuses less on the resolution of a specific conflict than on fostering a cooperative (planning) process for complex, multi-issue, multi-user situations. The name, consensus building, should not be understood to imply that these approaches are only suitable when there are no conflicts of differing interests among parties. In fact, these methods often work well, even when the stakeholders disagree strongly with each other. The consensus building methods are appropriate in early - strategic - stages of the planning process, to develop directions or strategies that are supported by a large number of stakeholders.