Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: decision-making process

[Patricia Lautner (lautnerp]

This is such an exciting time for you!  Congratulations.

At JPCohousing in Boston we use the consensus decision making model for our
plenary meetings.  There is one committee that uses sociocracy sometimes
for their meetings but for the community-wide discussions and decisions, we
use consensus.

A word of caution:  We made it through development and into living together
for a total of about 6-8 years before we learned that we were not using the
consensus process 'correctly'.  We hired Laird Saub to help us a few years
back and our understanding and use of the consensus process is 10 times
better now.

Two points of advice:  1) Consensus does not mean everyone is in agreement;
rather, it means everyone gives their permission for a decision to move
forward.  2) Make sure you have a well defined list of common values. This
will help you IMMENSELY as you begin to make decisions together.

Good luck!
Patti
www.communitasdevelopment.com

On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 10:11 PM, Alan Weiner <weineralan [at] gmail.com> wrote:

>
> We are 3 months into starting a co-housing community in western MA.
> We will soon be discussing how we will make group decisions.
> I don't think we have to reinvent the wheel on this one.
> Consensus and sociocracy seem to be common strategies.
> What approach(es) would you strongly recommend for consideration?  Which
> ones should be avoided?
> What are good resources?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Alan Weiner
> Village Hill co-housing
> Northampton, MA
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