RE: Diversity and values
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com)
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 16:31 CDT
Karen Frayne wrote several insightful comments about diversity.  IMHO 
diversity of values is what causes problems in groups.

Diversity is one of those buzzwords that has any number of meanings.    
My personal observation is that once a group is established and living 
together, they can weather a lot of storms which would destroy a group 
which is just forming and trying to accomplish all the development 
work.  I would think it would be best for groups forming to find "birds 
of a feather" and actively recruit others like the core group.  Values 
conflicts at the beginning stages of a group have broken apart three 
groups in my area.  I would recommend as a group forms, to create a 
vision statement which lays out your goals and any important values and 
make everyone who joins read and accept those, or get the whole group 
to modify it together.  One issue that crops up a lot deals with 
environmentalism.  Some groups and individuals feel very strongly about 
these sorts of issues.  If others join who do not, then the resulting 
values conflict will show up when you are making decisions about  
building materials, land clearing, site use, and may fragment the group 
into major conflicts.

There is a group of Mennonites who are working to create a cohousing 
group.  They have intense religious beliefs and values and their 
community will reflect that.  If you are not part of their church, you 
can't  join the group.  They have never had an open public meeting, and 
never will.  Is this bad?  I don't think so, as long as they are 
upfront about who and what they are.  The Winter issue of Cohousing 
Journal had a article about a group forming around the Vegan diet.  
Should these people be expected to welcome carnivores into their midst? 
 Again, I don't think so, as long as they are clear about what their 
values are and let people know that.

 Typical  value conflicts are : , environmental, low income, sexual 
issues, personal  independence vs. group authority, Pets, Children and 
kid raising, affordable housing, religious expression, equality of 
power, racial issues, money issues, food issues, personal lifestyle issues.

Many of these values manifest themselves in peoples personalities and 
approaches. For example,  a person who values personal independence 
highly and is suspicious of group authority, is going to be hard to get 
to agree on letting the group do certain things.  An individual may not 
ever have internalized why it is they are so suspicious and reluctant 
to give away personal authority to a group but that value effects how 
they feel in relation to the issues of the moment.  If that value is 
held strongly, they will leave the group, before they violate the 
value.  This is where groups who are forming can loose members.  When a 
community is built out and individuals have huge investments of time 
and money, the choice of leaving over a values conflict becomes much 
more difficult and unlikely, and so the stakes are much higher, and 
this is often reflected in the intensity of the arguments.

I keep returning to the theme of values clarification in the formation 
of groups partly because it is the Achilles heal of my own group.  We 
have never formally agreed what our group values are and we are 
constantly stumbling over it.  Unfortunately for us, it is much too 
late to do so, since people already have made large investments of time 
and money.  Many many of the issues which come up, would not be issues 
at all, if we all shared the same environmental values for example.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood

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