Category: groupimprovement

Posted on

“Structural Conflict” — And Six Ways to Reduce It

Extract from:

Creating a Life Together Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities – Diana Leaves

Here: https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ecovillages_and_Low_Impact_Development/Creating_a_Life_Together-Practical_Tools_to_Grow_Ecovillages_and_Intentional_Communities.pdf

1. Identify your community vision and create vision documents

2. Choose a fair, participatory decision-making process appropriate for your group. And if you choose consensus, get trained in it.

3. Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land together)

4. Learn good communication and group process skills. Make clear communication and resolving conflicts a priority.

5. In choosing cofounders and new members, select for emotional maturity.

6. Learn the head skills and heart skills you need to know.

Community founders must cultivate both heart skills and head skills.. This means learning how to make fair, participatory group decisions; how to speak from the heart; how to face conflict when it arises and deal with it constructively; and how to make cooperative decisions and craft fair agreements. It means learning how to create budgets, timelines, and strategic plans; and how to evaluate legal entities for land ownership or business or educational activities. It means learning the real estate market in your desired area,local zoning regulations, and, if needed, how to secure loans with reasonable terms. It means learning how to structure healthy and affordable internal community finances. It means learning about site planning and land development. It means doing all this with a sense of connection and shared adventure. Plunging into the land-search process or trying to raise money without first understanding these interrelated areas is a sure invitation to trouble.

Community founders tend to be specialists, but in fact they must be generalists. I’ve seen founders with spiritual ideals and compelling visions flounder and sink because they have no idea how to conduct a land search or negotiate a bank loan. I’ve seen founders with plenty of technical or business savvy — folks able to build a nifty composting toilet or craft a solid strategic plan — who didn’t know the first thing about how to speak honestly and from the heart to another human being. And I’ve seen sensitive spiritual folks as well as type-A “get-the-job-done” folks crash and burn the first time they encountered any real conflict.

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Actions and priority matrix

This matrix id usefull to organize the stuff to do alone or in group and come from a military strategy. It’ s famous with the name of Eisenhover’s matrix.

I dont like that man, but I find the matrix usefull to think cleaner and act faster and in group.

It’s also really simple:

A way to use it in a group is using to create the list of the day of the topics to speak in a assembly. If the meeting is really full of topics, this matrix helps group to decide what speak in the plenary assembly and what delegate to sub group, these subgroups managing urgent topics will have autonomy to decide and do. with the agreement to do a report to the central assembly and taking their responsability about the topic.

Posted on

Ruoli e mansioni

From MAG6 di Bologna (Mutua AutoGestione mag6.it/)

IT:

https://campiaperti.tetaneutral.net/s/YtkRbCzrYKeSsLm

https://campiaperti.tetaneutral.net/s/M29x2yXprcZMEan

Only 4 precautions:

0) must not exceed page A4 body 10

1) is that it will be filled in by the people taking the task and not by the others in the group. in the sense that the roles must be comfortable, because they are the shoes with which the group walks. and therefore when taking a job it is recommended to self-describe it according to the possibilities.

2) that roles and tasks should never be tackled alone, because unforeseen emergencies occur and our life cannot be crushed, but neither can we cripple a group.

3) decide immediately, when the review of the roles / tasks will take place, to adjust them, improve them, make them more functional to everything and rotate them to strengthen everything and especially the group.

This is the web english version:

Role description

1

Role
2

Primary task

max 3 lines, why does this organ exist? what is the ultimate goal?
3

Main functions

what does it do? What are the processes for which you are responsible? Who takes responsibility for achieving the primary purpose?
4

Fundamental organizational relationships

which functions provide that: .. you give / ask for an account? .. what you delegate? .. what it checks? .. etc. With which subjects?
5

External Relations

like internal relationships questions
6

Necessary and useful skills and competences

what are the things that help to live this role well? It is not said that you already own them but you are committed / aspiring to have them, empower them. Example: evaluate a lot of point of views, stand big responsability, listen the others, …
7

Note

Data, next review of this role

 

 

Posted on

Consensus: relationships and tech knowledge

We can say that consensus is in another side of unanimity and also law.

Is in a part where you take some Common Agreements, but respect the diversity and the different view about resolve a problem, and also if your group decide to not take be best for you, you are agree to try and your trust in the group do the other part.

So some 3 or 4 pratical agreements.

First answer to the question: Where is the power?

which assembly take the decision, which topic and who can partecipate. how contribs. Wich PROCEDURE we have to partecipate, how much time in advance we call an assembly.

Common Agreement:

  • the montly/general/weekly/topic assembly decides,
  • the right to be listen,
  • 3 min of speach for each, ..
  • if we do an assembly, we do also a report
  • ….

source: Roberto Tecchio – quaderni della non violenza