Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Groupthink

[Dave & Diane (coho]

Hi Norm, et al:

If you have community meetings that begin with process activities that 
last up to 45 minutes before business is introduced, you definitely 
have a problem. Although I would not jump to the conclusion that the 
activities are designed to create "groupthink" they do create another 
problem--somnambulance. Who is going to be able to think about business 
and process all the variables that need to be processed if you've 
waited up to 45 minutes just to get down to business?

There's always a tug-of-war between the process people and the business 
people in cohousing--I don't think you'll ever get away from that. We 
haven't hit upon a solution either.

The process activities should, as Saoirse said, "help transition people 
from the
hectic pace of their lives into a focus on what we are doing in THIS 
place
at THIS time." It should be a simple opener such as a game or a 
round-robin to ask simply "what's new with you today?" This helps 
people "put the door behind them" so to speak.

Do you have a facilitation team? It seems to me that you need to take a 
hard look at how items are getting on the agenda. Has there been enough 
work done "vetting" the items so that you can make sure different 
points of view have been incorporated into the proposal? If you haven't 
done this work, and you try to rush the proposal through the general 
meeting by smothering opposition and thoughtful debate it will always 
come back to bite you in the butt.

Do you have a steering or coordinating committee that helps determine 
what items need to get on the agenda and when? It helps to rank things 
in terms of "A,B, and C priorities" so you don't cram too much stuff on 
the agenda.

Has your group come up with a "blocking policy" (ours hasn't). In other 
words: when is appropriate or appropriate to block consensus? How is 
the blocking person handled? We had a workshop with an experienced 
facilitator a couple of years ago in which he said to "favor the 
minority voice." Do your facilitators do this, or do they try to hammer 
the opposing voice into the ground?

I would also ask you--how involved are you in your community? Do you 
regularly attend committee meetings or just drop in once in awhile? How 
is it that you are not hearing about the proposals far enough ahead of 
time to get your input incorporated? Are committee meeting times & 
dates posted in a conspicuous place far enough in advance that most 
people in the community can see the posting and decide to attend?

I thought the articles were timely and well-written. They certainly 
gave me a lot to think about!

Cheers,
--Diane(:^]

JP COHOUSING  617-524-6614
P.O. BOX 420 BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS
HTTP://WWW.JPCOHOUSING.ORG
"Foundations built and only one unit left!"

On Thursday, July 15, 2004, at 05:01 PM, Norm Gauss wrote:

> I have seen the groupthink dynamic in community meetings at our 
> cohousing
> group.  The meetings are usually begun by process activities often 
> lasting
> up to 45 minutes before business is introduced.