Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Backup procedure for decisions

[Tree Bressen (tree]

Hi,

Diane wrote:
>  Consensus works very well for simple
> decisions or for decisions in which you have a lot of time to craft a
> proposal. It works horribly for decisions like "What twenty-five items
> shall we cut out of the budget?" or "Which shall be our primary goal:
> affordability, handicapped accessibilty, diversity, sustainability, or
> preserving open space?"

Personally i think it's fine to include other tools within a basic 
consensus decision expectation . . . i don't even really think of it as a 
departure from the method.  So for instance, i might suggest that a group 
use a ranked ballot to figure out what 25 items to cut, then pass the final 
budget by consensus.  I think consensus is as much about atmosphere 
(creating a culture that values all the wisdom in the group, strives for 
win-win solutions as much as possible, and so on) as about official 
structures.  I've seen groups supposedly run by consensus use straw polls 
in a way that clearly gave a sense of winners and losers, and i've seen 
groups governed on paper by majority vote use fantastically inclusive 
consensus process that really addressed concerns and got everyone on board 
before a decision was passed.

Cheers,

--Tree



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