This idea might go a bit against the grain in terms of community self-governance which cannot be underestimated, but there are profesional entities out there that are experts in getting diverse and even enemy groups to sit down and negotiate (from peace / reconciliation agreements among guerrillas and states, to more run of the mill, less bellicose disagreements). I’ve seen these entities in action (I remember one called REOS Partners
https://reospartners.com/) and I believe these professional approaches could help a contentious working group be more purposeful, efficient and effective-Maybe pack months of work into a few days.
If this notion is seen completely out of the ICANN MSM self-governance comfort zone, perhaps one of these professional organizations could help train ICANN community volunteer/leaders and perhaps also ICANN staff, on these communication and consensus building techniques. ICANN org would get great ‘bang for the buck’ in investments such as these, which would both enhance participation and speed-up processes in WGs & PDPs.