Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Consensus in cohousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 8/07/2003 8:48 PM, "Peg Blum" <pegb [at] cambridgecohousing.org> wrote:

> In general, the process has worked well.  Except when deciding what colors
> to paint the dining room and some other spaces in our common house.  (And I
> dread the day when our exterior HardeePlank will need repainting....)

On this stuff, like colors, we put out the choices (usually narrowed by a
team) and then

1. Attach a paper ballot that has two options -- "I like this" and "I can't
live with this". 

2. People put an check mark for I like this and an x for I can't live with
this.

3. Any choice with an X goes out unless there are a lot of "I like this"
votes as well then we try to discuss it. Often the one or two x's were not
strong. Other times they noticed something that the Likes hadn't noticed and
the balance sways.

This has worked very well for us and produced very good long long lasting
results. Excellent chair choices, for example, and it took a long time to
find a choice we agreed on. We use it for anything people want to hang in
the commonhouse.

The only time (in my opinion) that it did not work well was when a very
favorite choice of tile for the kitchen was withdrawn after the balloting
for very good reasons (too rough to clean easily). But this was not
announced and those people were not allowed to comment on the other two
choices before the tiles were purchased. The buyers had bought the second
favorite but since most people had voted for the deleted favorite, in fact,
the third favorite would have been the first favorite, and probably
triggered another choice that was more acceptable to everyone.

Collecting comments and following through on a well-communicated process are
key to making potentially crazy-making decisions quickly and well.

Consensus does not mean everyone has to show up in a meeting and say "I do."
It only means that everyone has a fair opportunity to register objections
and have them respected.

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

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L