I saw it at work very clearly once; one tactic was to quickly pie-slice (gerrymander) the large group into "small groups" in such a way that critics were isolated from each other; get each small group to write up its policy recommendations and have a facilitator summarize them (the summary left out most critical elements); then in the grand wrap-up, all the small-groups' "recommendations" (which turned out to be all the same) were gathered and "summarized" by facilitators again, the summary being a second filter which left not the smallest trace of any dissent.
It gave the appearance of "democratic process" when in fact all the results were pre-determined.
“..the appearance of ‘democratic process’...”
Off topic slightly - this technique works when the people in the small groups are naive and do not suspect that they are being used. The Bishop in our diocese managed to have many parishes closed and/or combined using this method and the suckers thought they had decided it themselves. It was chilling how well it worked, in fact, and some of the most beautiful historic churches are closed now, while hideous suburban churches remained open. It was smoooth ...
Let’s all stay super vigilant so the dems don’t manipulate us in these ways. When people don’t realize they are being controlled, the method works.