Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: CoHousing TimeLine - Please Help

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jan 7, 2007, at 2:53 AM, Robert Moskowitz wrote:

> Determine Group Process And Decision Making Procedure

Thanks to Robert for beginning this discussion and offering to continue 
it. In the long list of things I found one tiny item that I wanted to 
amplify.

In the long, long list of things that need to be done in forming a 
cohousing group, governance is one of the primary needs and the one 
that gets the least attention. We all think we know how to run an 
organization so with a little consensus training we think we are good 
to go. Others believe that an early group is not the final group 
therefore a loose structure is good. Don't get dependent on new people 
because they might leave. Keep full group functioning. But also keep 
the original burning souls in control.

Over the last several years of studying sociocracy and looking at the 
problems of cohousing groups through the lens of sociocracy. I have 
learned that many of the problems of groups could be prevented by 
having a good governance structure from the beginning. In Robert's list 
and in the timeline game, which I played yesterday with the Cohousing 
Collaborative, this was just one item of very, very many, and it was 
too far down on the list. It is primary and needs to be at the top.

A governance structure not only determines how decisions will be made 
and by whom but how those decisions will be executed and by whom. It 
determines how people are selected for tasks and responsibilities. It 
determines how the organization interfaces with other organizations 
(like developers and architects) and it governs those relationships.

In addition, to execution of decisions, good governance structures 
should help integrate new people, for example, into the WORK of the 
community, not just into the pot lucks. That alone would resolve many 
of the problems of groups who worry about self-selection allowing 
people into the group who are not really interested in building 
community.

To govern means to steer. This requires more than group process and 
decision making. It requires structure. Execution.

Consensus alone does not offer a system for guiding the execution of 
decisions. Consensus is a decision-making tool and there are many good 
facilitators that will help a group work through the decision-making 
process. These facilitators are very important. The skills are very 
important. But process is not all.

Sociocracy is the only governance structure designed to enforce 
(literally) consensus decision-making. The only one. Others are rehabs 
from majority voting. Some work and some don't, but mostly, in the 
tradition of consensus, they are very dependent on the skills and the 
presence of a facilitator. Sociocracy also uses facilitators and they 
are also important in decision making but it offers far more. It 
produces more effective and more harmonious organizations.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
http://www.sociocracy.info