Re: Movinmg forward with the best info you have in decisionmaking. | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Raines Cohen (rc2-coho-Lraines.com) | |
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 08:32:21 -0800 (PST) |
On 3/19/05 10:17 PM, normangauss [at] charter.net <normangauss [at] charter.net> wrote: >Until we are able to assess the likely long-term consequences of our >actions, we cannot be confident that anything we do today we will eventually >regret. Precisely. And success in community living comes from recognizing this fact, acknowledging it, and MOVING AHEAD ANYWAYS with what you know rather than getting paralysed in indecision and over-analysis. If you can build TRUST that the group will SURVIVE and doing something won't MAKE THE HOUSES UNINHABITABLE and that the group has RESILIENCE and FLEXIBILITY and because you live in a community you can COPE with the CONSEQUENCES because you have GREAT NEIGHBORS who are CREATIVE and SMART and IT DOESN'T ALL FALL ON YOU because you live in a CARING COMMUNITY that is RICH in terms of resources and reserves and compassion! (pardon the capitalization, I just felt it important to get the key point across - having seen more than one community, on more than one issue, stall in similar ways). Seriously, especially here in California (and even more in your lovely mid-coast region, as featured in the recent movie "Sideways"), plants grow fast - they are a renewable resource, flexible and changeable over time. If the group can provide general guidance on values/principles and then have a subgroup like a landscape committee where people can go and advise and participate and get more input by doing the work, that's great. If weeds are a problem, call a work party to tackle it... many hands make light work. Hire some professional help to assist... we routinely do that here, and the committee has a budget so they don't have to come back to the full group for every landscaping session. At Swan's in Oakland, there was some serious debate over the landscape plan in the first few years, which the community (not just the developer) had spent lots of $ for and lots of time pre-move-in working with professional landscape architects to develop. It turns out that one member was impacted by a particular choice of plant in a particular location in a significant way, and many felt it was important to accomodate that concern and make a small, easy change to eliminate that impact. Another member on the landscape committee, one who wasn't part of the initial process felt like the plan was a consensed decision and therefore mandatory in its entirety to implement fully, verbatim. This difference led to much discord on the committee, and made it harder for it to work together to get its work done (in retrospect, we should have brought in professional outside conflict resolution services to not let it fester so long). The recalcitrant member eventually left the community, after recognizing a values alignment/priorities/flexiblity that did not match the community's. I really find that a sense of perspective is helpful for living in community. Learn more about your neighbors and their priorities. Go out of you way to respect theirs and help them with their goals, and in the process they'll get educated about your priorities and will respect them. If you have information that is relevant to a decision, make sure it is available. But consider the consequences to the social fabric of the community before continuing to draw lines in the sand. If everybody did that on every issue, would you have a community? Who would want to come to meetings? If you feel like your boundaries are being crossed, it's OK to say so. But also be ready to listen to your neighbors as to why they think what's happening is OK, and to accept that their point of view as part of what the community should be respecting. It's very easy to imagine the worst-possible consequences of any decision. But doing so without also assessing the best-possible outcome, and looking at the probabilities of either outcome (not to mention everything inbetween), weighted by the knowledge that the group can not only adapt to circumstances/new information but change decisions at any time, can prevent making any decision at alll, something which has its own (usually negative) consequences. It's not like the effects of a decision are hidden forever -- people have to look at the trees every day, and perhaps when one effect becomes apparent, somebody else will engage and help find another creative solution. If it's important for you to hear them say "Norm, you were right", then imagine them saying that, and move on. This is precisely why consensus process has a "stand aside" option, one you should feel comfortable using. It gives you the opportunity to say, "I think what you're doing is wrong and I'm not willing to participate in the implementation of it, but I'm not going to stand in the way of the group moving forward with what nearly everyone else thinks is right, because I understand the importance of moving forward." Stand asides should be recorded in minutes, they give you a chance to get your issues out there, but for the group to move forward with awareness of them. Blocks should be extremely rare -- something to use a few times per lifetime, they work by getting the group to do the work to make sure everybody is heard and to come up with innovative solutions, to make their use unnecessary. If a decision has MULTIPLE stand asides on an issue, that's a red flag for a facilitator, too, that more process is needed. In my experience, the more this portion of the process is rushed, the harder it is to figure out who has what issue and how to get them addressed/incorporated. Are the committees doing their homework and getting information out to everybody in time for discussion before decision? Is the facilitator/facilitation team allocating enough time? Are people feeling heard? Compromises in these areas tend to lead to the greatest stress and actually make it take more time to come to consensus. If the trust is there that the facilitator will go through the full process where necessary, then you can find shortcuts and understand that a "check in" on an issue is just that, not a forced decision. The first year of community living is the hardest... it does get easier. You can help accelerate this process by investing energy into finding the connections with neighbors and building on them rather than magnifying the differences. Raines Raines Cohen <my initials,2,dash,coho,dash,L at my first name .com> Secretary, Berkeley [CA] Cohousing Where a surprise common dinner visit by Chuck (yes, that Chuck) led to new plans for CH soundproofing! Member, Swan's Market Coho [Oakland, CA] <http://www.swansway.com/> Celebrating our nonprofit developer EBALDC's 30th anniversary. And where the grid-tied solar electric is installed, at zero cost to the community, thanks to outside investors getting tax credits! Treasurer, East Bay Cohousing <http://www.ebcoho.org/> Drawing up a job description to hire a member for volunteer coordination. Boardmember, Coho/US <http://www.cohousing.org/> Which just ran a sold-out Bay Area tour yesterday; register today for the Denver-Boulder tour in April.
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Re: Movinmg forward with the best info you have in decisionmaking. Raines Cohen, March 20 2005
- Re: Movinmg forward with the best info you havein decisionmaking. normangauss, March 20 2005
- Re: Movinmg forward with the best info you havein decisionmaking. normangauss, March 20 2005
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