Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus vs Majority Voting

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

on 7/17/2002 9:44 AM, Rob Sandelin at floriferous [at] msn.com wrote:

> Most cohousing groups don't have a process for dealing with process
> problems, few ever intervene with inapproiate or damaging behaviors of
> individuals, and seldom do groups formally train themselves in  good process
> and expect all new members to take the same training. So in most cohousing
> groups, consensus really means cave into the dominant personalities demands
> or spend weeks going around and around.

This is really sad and certainly would prevent consensus from being a viable
option. How do they function at all?

> There are those who think consensus over simple things normally takes
> several hours, that's just how it goes with consensus. This is not the case.
> In a healthy consensus process, I have watched functional groups (for
> example Greenpeace International) make 5-6 consensus decisions in one 3 hour
> meeting of 50 people, from 22 countries, a couple of them taking a hour each
> because of their difficulties. They understand consensus, all the members
> are trained in it as a requirement to participate, they have outstanding
> facilitation, and communication is a priority. Consensus, with a well
> trained and functional group works well and reasonably fast, certainly as
> fast as Roberts Rules of Order.

What kind of training do they do? Is there a handbook they use?

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org


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