Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: example of consensus success

[R.N. Johnson (cohoranda]

I worked for many years for an organization that used a modified form of 
consensus decision making. I realized the value of consensus when I took 
another better paying job at another agency with a more traditional management 
philosophy.  While there was never any shortage of issues to work on at the 
first agency, anyone who cared to could work to change the issue, either within 
their workplace or agency wide. Sometime it took years, and sometimes nothing 
much changed, but we all had a voice in the result.  We all felt ownership over 
not just our own work, but the agency as a whole. If we did not get the fancy 
health insurance policy we wanted, we knew it was because part of the agency 
would have had to lay off workers to afford it. When we did quality improvement 
work, virtually everyone at the opportunity to participate  and bring in their 
concerns and perspectives. Not everyone participated in many decisions, and 
some complained that the decision
 making took too much time, but everyone knew what to do to make a change if 
they felt it was needed. At the second agency, there was a lot of complaining, 
and I noticed that longtime workers there often made no effort to change the 
offending policy or situation, but simply ignored policies they didn't like. If 
enough people ignored a new policy, it often was dropped, even in cases where 
the policy related to funding requirements that could have lost the agency a 
grant. There was very little discussion, and virtually no avenues for 
improvement or new ideas.  The job was interesting in many ways and it paid 
better than any other job I have held, but I did not stay.  The constant 
complaining and undermining got to me, especially in contrast to the 
empowerment at the previous job.