Cohousing-L Mailing List: Group process workshops

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

Joani said:
 Rob Sandelin from Sharingwood teaches group process as well, and is
also steeped in cohousing as most of you know.

My weekend workshops are booked up through June. I am booked for September as 
well. I only do one workshop a month. I have a waiting list for May in case 
that gig gets canceled.  Ellen Hertzman is excellent and is much more 
available than I am, I reccomend her highly. 

It really is going to save your group an incredible amount of time and angst 
if you can get a good group process workshop. It may even save your group from 
failure. I don't say this because I teach it, I say this because I live it. 
After six years of living in and exploring communities I can say that the 
absolute key to success comes from your relationships to each other. If you 
can build a group process and dynamic that enhances your relationships to each 
other, then you will weather all the storms ahead of you. The more you 
understand about group process, the warning signs, the dysfunctional things, 
and the more tools you have to work with, the better off you will be. Working 
successfully as a group of people is something most of each need training in, 
because most people don't have any experience doing so. There are a lot of 
subtle and very dysfunctional behaviors in a group that can really trip you 
up.

Just a warning note: I recently attended a faciliation workshop taught be 
someone who had lots of corporate experience and no communities experience. 
Although it was interesting, almost none of it would apply to a communities 
experience because the goals are very different. This person was coming from a 
corporate perspective of dealing with the boss and controlling employees!  So 
if you find a local teacher, try and get one that has at least an awareness of 
communities and their goals. The FIC has several excellent faciliation 
trainers as well. 


Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
Northwest Intentional Communties Association
Proud sponsors of the third North American Cohousing Conference, Sept 18-21