Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Tragedy of the commons

[John Beutler (jabeutler]

At Liberty Village we have something called a "Mandate" that a team gets 
from the larger community which is designed to empower them to get the job 
done.  It's typically a fairly structured one-page document that tries to 
set limits and define a purpose.  I can't say it's a cure-all, but it helps.

Cheers

JAB

> No, but simply exercising leadership in a cohousing situation isn't
> enough: That role needs some level of authority to make decisions stick,
> or you'll end up with teams that make decisions that are repeatedly
> vetoed by the community. That's the difference between exercising
> leadership and actually being an easy-to-overthrow dictator in my mind:
> Having authority while in the position, and using it well knowing that
> you can be removed if you don't use your authority wisely.
>
> If every little decision needs to be vetted by a complete community
> consensus, it's beyond just inefficient:  it's maddeningly frustrating,
> and it burns people out. If you don't like the word dictator, then call
> it something else--but delegate real authority to that person or team,
> and make sure that a single community member can't join a team and
> sabotage it and/or harm its efficiency. I've seen that happen in a
> community, and I think we've all heard stories on the list of similar
> community issues. Burn-out is an oft-mentioned problem in cohousing
> participation, and I think lack of real authority of teams is a root cause.
>
> Tim
>
> --
> Tim Mensch
>
> Currently at Wild Sage (Boulder, CO): http://www.wildsagecohousing.org
>
> Founding member of Tumblerock, a Boulder, CO area community in its forming 
> stages: http://tumblerock.org
>
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John Beutler
Liberty Village, MD
jabeutler [at] comcast.net
http://www.libertyvillage.com/