Pattern matching can be used to examine the degree of consensus among groups and individuals and to suggest what needs to be changed to achieve consensus.

For instance, let’s assume that our Concept Mapping participant group consists of two major stakeholder groups: managers and line staff. It may be important to determine whether these two groups see the issues similarly and, if not, where they most disconnect. We could examine this using the importance ratings we typically collect in Concept Mapping. In the pattern matching analysis, we would construct two theoretical measures: the average importance ratings of the managers and line staff, respectively. The ladder graph would show one line for each cluster on the map. Each line would represent the average importance rating of the two groups for that cluster. We could quickly identify lines that show a disconnect (i.e., are furthest from horizontal). The pattern matching correlation provides an overall metric for how strong or weak the consensus is. Using the ladder graph, we might discover that while there is general agreement between the two groups, they are most discrepant on issues related to two specific clusters. This knowledge could form the basis of a consensus discussion wherein the two groups attempt to understand their different perspectives and potentially reach some agreement.