Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Interpreting Sharon's" individual vs. group" statements

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 04:21  PM, Gail Holmes wrote:

> I'll be interested to hear what Sharon says but how I interpret her
> "individual vs. group" statements seems different than yours.  
> Certainly
> allowing one person's selfish ideas to take over a decision being made 
> for
> the whole group would not be healthy and no one would stay for long. 
> What I
> take from Sharon's thoughts is that when each individual feels 
> included and
> listened to in the decision making process they are happier people, 
> have
> less active or passive anger and work co-operatively with the whole vs.
> against it. From what little I know about Sociocracy that seems to be 
> the
> common thread that runs through the design of their process.
This is exactly what I meant -- thank you. I would add that the only 
way that consensus works is if each individual contributes fully in 
order to achieve the best result. A cooperative project needs each 
individual voice. Assuming that individual 
needs/desires/opinions/viewpoints will be "selfish" negates the value 
of the individual and this weakens the group effort because a group is 
a collection of individuals.

Individuals working in harmony can combine their strengths to produce a 
better effort than each one of them could have produced alone, but 
harmony achieved at the expense of the needs of the individual is 
shallow and short-lived.

The objective of consensus is not compromise but resolution.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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