Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Can We Live Without Hierarchy?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Aug 6, 2015, at 9:33 PM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> It is fascinating your analysis of why your community is unwilling to
> delegate to the teams. We also have that challenge, and the loss to
> the community is great. Not just in back up of decisions, but in
> frustrations by people who want to make things happen but aren't given
> the authority.

At Takoma Village we aren't good at delegating either until we have a very 
detailed proposal — like putting in solar panels, etc. Big projects. But we 
also haven’t instituted evaluation of results. Let a team take charge but 
revisit once a year to see how it is going. What has worked and what hasn’t?

> As a leader of a religious community, from a denomination that isn't
> supposed to have leaders, I will say that it isn't that simple to keep
> from having people in charge.

> My experience in cohousing is the same--people see some people as the
> leader and see others as not the leader. When those seen as leaders
> speak, others follow. Is that heirarchy or not? Is that good or not?

Yes, because decisions are made at the top. Although people are consenting to 
it in a passive way. The basic tenet of sociocracy is that the group decides as 
equals how they will proceed — who will make decisions and how on a daily 
basis. Those are policies that control future actions. Then in daily work the 
leader makes decisions in accordance with the policies the group has set. 
Having a strong day to day leader is the most effective way to accomplish daily 
tasks.

Read the piece about leaderless groups on the Sociocracy.info website. Groups 
always have leaders. Always.

The Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman.

http://www.sociocracy.info/the-tyranny-of-structurelessness/

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Sociocracy: A Deeper Democracy
http://www.sociocracy.info