Cohousing-L Mailing List: Reinventing the Wheel

[Rebbry (Rebbry]

I've heard people on this list suggest that there's no reason to reinvent the
wheel, when there are consultants and other cohousing groups to tap for
knowledge and experience.  I've been thinking about this for several months
in the context of Ozark CoHousing's experience and my personal experience as
a consultant.

If you work much with groups you often face the expediency of producing an
idea or product for others to react to and, thus, save time; on the other
hand, you can create together from scratch (in a product development like
mode) with occassional stunning (albeit slow) results. 

When our social technology committee sat down for the first time to talk
about laying tracks for social infrastructure, we didn't have a clue about
where to begin.  We knew one possibility was adapting another group's process
manual, but we didn't do that.  We waded through some discomfort with
ambiguity, found our vocabulary, drafted a table of contents for a process
manual, then set about methodically filling in the blanks.  Later, we peeked
at a couple of other "recommended" process manuals and found a point here or
there that was useful.  More importantly, we found that we were very pleased
with our own homegrown product. 

We're approaching our architectural program the same way. Avoiding the
temptation of examples isn't easy, but the longer you can wait, the less
chance there is of constraining your group's creative process within the
outline of another group's creative process.

Much of the work I've done over the past 7 or so years has focused on
designing and facilitating group processes.  I enjoy looking at models for
visioning or strategic planning or cohousing or economic development, but the
problem is that no two groups are ever the same. Organizational cultures are
strikingly different.  And then there's developmental stage: groups go
through the same process of maturation that individuals follow.  And
personalities!  If all these factors and many more are not taken into account
in custom-designing group processes, well, it's just like trying to fit every
member in your cohousing group into the exact same, one-size-fits-all
swimsuit. Picture that for a minute.

I don't mean to suggest that we can't learn from each other; I've soaked up pl
enty of useful information on this mailing list. What I'm suggesting is to be
careful about buying a recipee for cohousing.  Try your own hand at process
manuals and architectural programs, give yourself some creative leg room
before looking at examples.

In the Spirit, 

Rebecca Bryant, Ozark CoHousing where we are just completing year one in a
four year process that will have us moving into a 15-22 unit,
permaculture-based cohousing community at the turn of the millenium.