Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re:[C-L]_RE: Blocking consensus

[Raines Cohen (raines-coho-L]

"Ruddick, T.R." <RUDDICK [at] edison.cc.oh.us> wrote on Mon, 4 Feb 2002 
12:29:05:

>Words are important. The term "blocking consensus" misrepresents the
>process.  It implies that consensus is something that ought to happen, and
>anyone who stops it is acting as an obstructionist.   Those are the wrong
>words to use here.

Thanks for finding the essence of something I wanted to say on this 
thread. I've witnessed the big shift occuring at meetings where suddenly 
the fear emerges around blocking... in part perhaps because of misguided 
"pride" in "we've never had a block in x years together", and also 
because it's thought of as a "last resort" tactic to use when 
desperate... i.e. the concept that you shouldn't need to, and if you do, 
it's a sign that something's wrong.

> it's about the
>group's responsibility to craft a proposal that earns the consent of every
>member. 

Absolutely. Perhaps a more positive approach would be to look at the 
overall group process as having a goal of "finding consensus" by tapping 
the wisdom, experience, intuition and work of all parties. If it can't be 
found, that points out an area for more exploration... not just looking 
for it over where the light is better. And the formality of polling at 
meetings helps the group "verify consensus"... making sure that everybody 
feels confident that moving forward is the right thing.

On another recent topic, it was interesting for me to read the sociocracy 
description/disccusion, particulary in regards to its implied hierarchy, 
after recently meeting an inventor who proceeded, upon seeing my 
Cohousing Network "Cohousers do it by consensus" sweatshirt, to explain, 
at length, his system for improved consensus that avoids 
hierarchy/control by leaders issues by having participants assign dollar 
values to decisions and choose to "spend" funds in a fashion to do a kind 
of proportional voting... it seemed to me like a variant on the 
consensus+n models (i.e. it takes two households to block) type of 
systems, with the number variable depending on the strength of 
conviction. Of course, since different people place different values on 
money, I think you're back to square one in unequal influence in that 
process... but I learned a lot about his concerns/values by seeing how he 
structured the system to deal with what he perceived as the key 
problems/issues. It reminded me that we should look as our process, and 
its unique nuances in every community, as a reflection of the values of 
the community, not necessarily as the cause of them.

And for all the messages here that express frustration over "difficult 
process" at meetings... remember that overcoming the difficulty is part 
of what binds the community and helps you find the shared values that 
make things easier down the road. You don't need to invent 
crises/struggles in order to do this... it will happen at whatever pace 
it happens.

Raines


Raines Cohen <coho-L [at] raines.com> <http://www.swansway.com/>

  Vice President, Swan's Market Cohousing [Old Oakland, CA]
Enjoying common meals that incorporate our winter garden harvest crop.

  Member, East Bay Cohousing [no site yet] <http://www.ebcoho.org/>
Where members are organizing around an Oakland "uptown" potential site.

  Boardmember, The Cohousing Network <http://www.cohousing.org/>
Looking forward to a Coho story in Terrain magazine.

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