Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Communication when times are stressful

[Hans Tilstra (hanstilstra]

Liz wrote
> Four hours is WAY too much time to spend on a business meeting. Much more
> work needs to be done in committee. But in order to let committees do
work,
> you have to trust each other, and you need to have a solid community to do
> that.

I agree and am very interested in some ways in which workteams achieve this.
I was reading this book on empowerment theory. Two key points seem to apply
directly to cohousing collaboration:

1. Efficient means of sharing information

If the behind-the-scenes information exchange works, the group is more
likely to achieve consensus when attending the actual meetings. Participants
who are informed and prepared can spend less time going over old ground,
stepping back to basic questions covered months ago.

For example, there are potentially dozens of important documents that need
to be shared and kept up to date. An internet site can become a virtual
parking lot for ideas (eg. http://www.freedrive.com ,
http://www.adobe.ecircles.com ).  For accounting, one cohousing member
suggested http://www.netledger.com . Participants don't have the time to
turn cohousing into a full-time job. The internet enables participants to
read emails at a time of convencience. Cohousing resources are freely shared
amongst the global network of cohousers. This saves on reinventing the
wheel.  Learning to use information does NOT get in the way of social
development of the group. Being organised and well informed in the
preparation stage DOES save substantial amounts of money.

 2. clear boundaries to enable autonomy for individual committees

Small workteams who have been given the authority to calibrate decisions
(rather than revolutionary changes) don't need to go back to the bigger team
for hours. However, if the roles are ambiguous (we have a "process"
committtee, a "communications" committee etc.), then you'd have to come back
to the whole group rather frequently.

cheers,
Hans Tilstra
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~cohouse




Blanchard, Carlos & Randolph (1999) "The 3 Keys to Empowerment"