We describe a combinatorial algorithm which, given a monotone and consistent symmetric set function d on a finite set V in the sense of Rizzi [Riz00], constructs a non trivial set S minimizing d(S, V \ S). This includes the possibility for the minimization of symmetric submodular functions. The presented algorithm requires at most as much time as the one in [Riz00], but depending on the function d, it may allow several improvements.