by Craig Freshley
copyright © 2006 Craig Freshley, unless otherwise noted
Please see the Good Group Decisions website to learn more about your usage rights or learn about Craig and his...
Group Process
More than buildings, cohousing is about people. Successful cohousing communities spend as much time and energy on growing connections and attending to group process as they do to building and maintaining structures. A strong desire for collaboration and consensus isn’t enough; we need to learn and practice the skills to do it well. (After all, most of us did NOT grow up knowing how to do this!) Periodic training in communication skills and conflict resolution along with opportunities to discuss deeper values and goals can help maintain healthy, strong relationships. Read one of these books together and discuss it, or bring in an outside facilitator to help you see the water you swim in. -- Eris Weaver, Group Process Consultant
|
Views: 7,273 |
Many professionals are interested in providing services to forming groups and existing communities. Coho/US does not screen Other Professional listings. Professionals demonstrating cohousing... Views: 16,425 |
These professional facilitators have significant experience working with cohousing communities to enhance group process and communication, to forming groups as well as "mature" communities seeking... Views: 6,314 |
|
These tools of use to groups tackling issues come from Seeds for Change, a British nonprofit that seeks to equip those working for change with better skills.
This is a compilation of tools that... Views: 6,196 |
By Tree Bressen, Handouts for presentation(s) at the 2009 Cohousing Conference Agenda Planning
Checking for Agreement
5 Principles of Facilitation
Meeting Formats
Handling Inappropriate Blocks in a Consensus Process
Nurturing Dissent
Meeting Preparation
Consensus... Views: 9,246 |
WebChat videos are usually posted 1-2 business days after the event. Please see below for links to WebChats to date.
#24
Chuck Durrett
5/7/19
Cohousing Design: If it doesn't work socially, why... Views: 5,748 |
|
Tasha Harmon All of us have experienced meetings that bog down, get derailed, or run aground. Sometimes
it’s pretty dramatic, and sometimes it’s just a more extreme version of business as usual; but
regardless... Views: 2,389 |
Coho US Staff Strong facilitation makes for effective and efficient meetings. One ticky part is the balance between the need for strong leadership and the need to be an equal member of the community. This is... Views: 1,409 |
Sharon Villines, Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC Q: How many communities out there have switched from a unanimous decision-making process to one where there is a real desire for every voice to be heard but if a community becomes stuck and a... Views: 1,754 |
|
Coho US Staff Yana Ludwig's second WebChat was another great success. This time she tackled the topic of Cooperative Culture, giving us 6 of her 10 strategies for being effective in cooperative governance. Yana... Views: 1,552 |
Coho US Staff Ted Rau, co-founder of Sociocracy for All presented our WebChat last week on Meeting Agendas and Minutes. Read the summary below and watch the full WebChat at this link
https://youtu.be/J7HrsF3PXhk... Views: 1,524 |
Coho US Staff What a great conversation to start off 2019. Ronnie Rosenbaum gave a clear and thoughtful presentation on communication in cohousing with so many tangible ideas to start using right away.
Watch... Views: 1,455 |
|
Karen Gimnig Consensus Rules
Most of us join a cohousing community with little experience of consensus. We find the ideas of shared decision-making quite appealing, but we don’t really know how to do it. So... Views: 1,541 |
Coho US Staff In our most recent WebChat, Alan O'Hashi shared techniques for facilitation in consensus cohousing groups.
His approach is to shift from the transactional methods common in the greater culture, to... Views: 1,441 |
Coho US Staff Ted Rau
Sociocracy for All
Making Meetings Shorter
Much appreciation to Ted Rau for presenting WebChat #5 earlier this month. We had a great audience who were drawn by Ted’s enticing topic “... Views: 1,485 |
|
Coho US Staff Thanks to Yana Ludwig for an excellent WebChat introduction to consensus. You can read a short summary below and see the full session at this link:
https://youtu.be/Uvbia2QJjEk
Yana gave us a... Views: 1,675 |
Karen Gimnig The Cohousing Association of the US was delighted to welcome longtime process professional, Laird Schaub for a WebChat on working with emotions. An audience of about 80 people including groups... Views: 1,500 |
Karen Gimnig Last week we enjoyed our second WebChat.
Karen Gimnig shared about the value of Getting Connected and strategies for making it happen faster. After a short presentation, questions ranged from... Views: 1,708 |
|
Karen Gimnig The following question was asked on a WebChat on Oct 18, 2018. We didn’t have time to answer it there, so Karen is offering the answer here.
Question:
Is there a way to get folks who are... Views: 1,810 |
The Cohousing Association of the US The Cohousing Association of the US was delighted to host Jerry Koch-Gonzalez of Sociocracy for All for the first in our series of WebChats. Over 70 people attended the program, including groups... Views: 2,001 |
Karen Gimnig This fall The Cohousing Association is rolling out another great opportunity to learn about cohousing. We will be hosting sessions with process and facilitation professionals to share their... Views: 2,231 |
|
Sharon villines "It is a strategy I think a community could use to jump start their program, and then talk about how to reduce the centralization after a year or more of successful meals. Since we have quite slowly... Views: 6,443 |
Sharon Villlines, Takoma Village Cohousing When lying awake last night reflecting on various decisions made in cohousing and in my neighborhood community, I explored some questions about what is open and transparent in a world where everyone... Views: 4,376 |
By Sharon Villines, Takoma Village Cohousing This post is on a neighborhood discussion list and will be seemingly off-topic but bear with me.
Our neighborhood list, TakomaDC where Takoma Village Cohousing is located, started in the 1990s by... Views: 6,644 |
|
The 2018 Boulder CO Regional Cohousing Conference holds the keys to creating a highly functioning cohousing community. There is something for everyone - those exploring the idea, newly forming groups... Views: 3,378 |
By Elizabeth Magill, Mosaic Commons in Berlin, MA What shall we discuss as we are forming our communities? Every forming community (I hope!) asks this question and communities that have already moved in give lots of different answers. Many of those... Views: 2,912 |
Karen Gimnig Why is connection so elusive? How can something so universally desired be so difficult to attain in a richly resourced culture like the United States? Especially, how can it be difficult among... Views: 3,892 |
|
Mary Kraus - cohousing architect & consultant, resident Pioneer Valley Cohousing Imagine you have been a member of a forming cohousing group for several months now, and you have just joined the circle for a big decision-making meeting about the vision and future of this community... Views: 2,685 |
Laird Schaub: Laird's Blog Not all topics are created equal. In the context of cooperative culture, some topics are much tougher to get at than others.
Here are half a dozen that I encounter regularly. These are by no means... Views: 5,569 |
Laird Schaub: Laird's Blog I had a phone conversation with a good friend the other day, who needed someone to vent with about a frustrating experience she'd recently had as an outside facilitator.
The group had been... Views: 2,832 |