Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Looking for best practices orientation approaches

[Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

Pare — A few thoughts …

(1) DON’T WAIT TOO LONG
      In most cases, the best time to get oriented is before one buys the 
house.  Ideally, even before a unit goes on the market, you have an intake 
program nurturing candidate new members.  This may help sustain a vetted 
waiting list of households genuinely interested in communitarian living.  
(Although there’s plenty of evidence showing that you can’t rely solely on a 
waiting list.)

(2) DIVERSE LEARNING MODES
      Some people learn by reading owner’s manuals, bylaws, and other official 
documents; I am one of these people, which is why I can be annoying.  But 
others learn better by meeting and talking.  Others learn better by doing: Join 
a WorkDay, attend plenaries, cook a meal, etc.  So don’t imagine that 
distributing reading materials is the core of your orientation.

(3) GIVE IT SOME TIME
      Even the best educated of college graduates need time — probably a couple 
years — to learn, adapt to, and be productive at, a new job with new tasks in a 
new work culture.  Then if they change jobs — like from the bursar’s office at 
a university to a budget analyst for a political candidate — it takes longer, 
again, to learn this new variant.  (Never mind the challenge of switching from 
accounting to folk singing.)

(4) SOMETIMES IT DOESN’T WORK OUT
      Even when you adopt (1) through (3) as best practices, sometimes people 
fall short of each other’s expectations, and it can’t be fixed.  At that point, 
maybe the community’s job is to help misfits move along gracefully.

And No, at Cornerstone, we’re still working on how to do all this well.

————————————
Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Cohousing
617.460.4549

On November 11, 2023 at 8:18:06 AM, Pare Gerou (paregerou [at] gmail.com) wrote:

Looking for creative minds,  

We've been reflecting on our current orientation approach and how to  
improve it, and we could use your help. PowerPoint presentations followed  
by Q&A sessions, or welcome packets, etc- while informative, often result  
in limited retention of information. Based on questions over the months  
following orientation, it feels like about 20-30% of orientation  
information is absorbed at best.  

While vague, general interactive discussions are fun, some things just have  
to be learned at the beginning- like major group decisions and processes.  
At least for some of the portions of the orientation, we want an approach  
that requires more of their interactive engagement with the material, that  
gives them immediate feedback about whether they know the material, and  
that provides immediate correction so they succeed in learning the decision  
or process or anything else.  

What do you think is ideal? Have any of your communities done a great  
job? Has anyone tried gamifying parts of their orientations?-- digital  
escape rooms or scavenger hunts, etc? Has anyone tried quizzes (although  
that sounds horrible...)? Any other approaches or ideas?  

I am not looking for external training suggestions-- like the wonderful  
courses offered by IC and SOFA and US Coho, among many others. We do plan  
to attend some of these over time, and they are the very best thing to set  
a group on track, but I am focused here on internal orientation sessions  
that occur directly after one becomes a new member.  
Ideas?  
Pare Gerou  
Greek Village Cohousing  





Kind Regards,  
EVI (PARE) GEROU  
Greek Village Cohousing  
T. +1 (434) 962-7801  
A. Peloponnese  
W. www.GreekVillageCohousing.com  
<http://www.greekvillagecohousing.com/>  
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