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

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Just so it's clear, I was advocating a majority vote backup to a consensus
process, not that all groups should only use majority voting all the time.

I advocate cooperative process with the goal of giving everyone's experience
a chance to be heard and honored. Consensus is only one kind of cooperative
group process, and you can be inclusive and still vote on a particular
outcome at the end, after every option has been looked at carefully.

The reason to draw upon the groups experience is obvious, there are many
lifetimes of experience sitting in a room, and you will get a maximum number
of ideas and perspectives to view an issue with which often will include
many things you personally would NEVER have thought of. This is the power of
a cooperative process.

I also was explaining that many cohousing groups I have witnessed do not
really have the foundations to use consensus process successfully, and so it
becomes a burden and source of group angst. Consensus has prerequisites and
groups that do not have these factors will find consensus does not work
well.

I don't think I used the term bad in my descriptions of controllers. They
have roles to play and are important. But controllers sometimes lack
important skills and understanding in order to be effective at being
cooperative, and so have a deleterious effect on cooperative process, in the
worse case, which I have seen many examples of, shutting down the whole
groups ability to do anything. In this situation, sometimes moving ahead
without them can be in the groups best interest, as it gives these  people
the understanding that the group will not tolerate such behaviors
indefinitely. This is one way for controllers to gain learning and skills.
Its not the best way, but in my experience, it does work. This is a good use
of a backup vote process in my experience.

Again, worse case scenarios are that controllers manipulate the group to get
what they want at the expense of the group. They do so for their own gain,
not in the best interests of the group. And when that is occurring, you are
no longer using a consensus process, even if you call your process
consensus, and really believe such behaviors are part of consensus. It just
aint so, you are using a minority control process. I do not recommend this
process as one which builds community, but it is sometimes what happens to
some cohousing groups. I have seen it more than 20 different cohousing
groups so it is not uncommon. Most groups seem to self  correct this
eventually, some apparently do not.

I think cooperative process is an important function of building community
in a cohousing setting. Making this work, with 40+ adults is important and
good work, perhaps one of the best things cohousing does.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood, where our July meeting took 45 minutes, much of which was spent
laughing.

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