Cohousing-L Mailing List: Decision-Making Methods

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

One of the options of sociocracy is the acceptable practice of using a 
decision-making method that is appropriate to the decision, including 
unanimity. With consent, any other option is available.

Sometimes we discuss more than is necessary to make a good decision. Discussion 
and arguments that have little to do with the decision become central and 
confuse the issue. (One of my beliefs is that we need more training in how to 
discuss than in how to make decisions.)

We tend to think of decision-making as authority, majority, or consensus. There 
are other alternatives, my favorite being preference ranking — usually known as 
five-stars or the 1-10 ranking used in ice skating competitions. 

In addition to making a decision, a preference ranking gives you a lot of 
information on topics that affect everyone but discussion gets you nowhere.

For example, we have frustration, anger, and tears of helplessness over a 
seemingly petty issue that arises almost weekly — the television in the CH. 
Raise the topic and people will throw their hands up in disgust. People (1) 
can't remember the settings for switching between the DVD player and the 
satellite channels, (2) can't find the channels they want, (3) have not a clue 
how to record or find a recording, and (4) can't do things like turn off closed 
captioning. If there is someone in the room who knows how to do those things — 
we call in experts for planned viewings of Downton Abby — they may still not be 
able to solve the problem because someone has switched the cables behind the TV 
in order to plug in their computer and replaced them incorrectly or changed 
other arcane settings like screen resolution. 

We recently did a preference ranking of more than 138 items that members had 
listed as things they wanted in the community. Better instructions for the TV 
ranked across the board as a 4 or 5. We haven't finished the tabulation but I 
don't think any other item will be that high. The numbers make it clear that 
this is a pervasive problem that is not age, sex, channel, or personality 
related. 

No set of instructions seems clear enough to resolve the problems — and who 
wants to read a book to watch TV that you only watch with friends for special 
events? Almost no one wants to become an expert on all the possible settings 
which are quickly forgotten when not used. A discussion would not have revealed 
the pervasiveness of this problem — it would have focused on the wonders of 
technology and offers of even more training and better writing. 

After the ranking, the technocrats are finally willing to discuss the only 
solution we can find. We need to (1) limit options and stop believing that we 
need the wonders of technology in the CH so we don't have to pay for them at 
home. The purpose of the CH TV is to facilitate viewing and it isn't.

The issue of decision-making is what methods are most satisfying for what kinds 
of issues? How do you frame the options? How do you interpret the results?

Discussions of "blocking" are endless, I think, because they are off point. 
Objection vs consent is not the only or even the best option in all cases.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines, Washington DC
"The truth is more important than the facts." Frank Lloyd Wright