[Noisebridge-discuss] Practical Politics

Patrick Keys citizenkeys at gmail.com
Wed Feb 2 18:57:49 UTC 2011


I would also like to attend such a discussion group.

I was required to take a "Business Cornerstone - Building a Solid 
Foundation" class my first semester of business school.  A third of the 
class was devoted to team decision making.  I have the textbook here in 
front of me that I will take up to Noisebridge to go along with Jared's 
book.

Just remember that consensus is not always right.  To pursue such a 
route is groupthink.  "Groupthink occurs when team members place 
consensus above all other priorities..." ("Business Cornerstone - 
Building a Solid Foundation", page 170).

What follows groupthink?  Escalation of Commitment.  Escalation of 
commitment is a phenomenom defined as "persisting with a losing course 
of action, even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary" (same 
textbook, page 178).  In summary, in some groups (not all), the longer 
that group does things the wrong way, the more committed they become to 
continue doing things the wrong way.

For the record, I don't think Noisebridge has the problem of groupthink. 
  Don't you agree? ;-)


Patrick




On 2/2/2011 10:37 AM, Rachel McConnell wrote:
> I'd love to come to a discussion group on the consensus process.  Please
> facilitate this.
>
> Rachel
>
> Jared Dunne wrote:
>> Is anyone else interested in something like what Shannon proposed?
>>
>>>> I'd still like to do a seminar-style class-thing on Consensus process; I'm
>>>> imagining it as a set of lightning talks interspersed with Q&A and
>>>> Discussion periods.  Anybody have experience with consensus process outside
>>>> of Noisebridge who is willing to give a five-minute "how we did it at X"
>>>> talk?  Anybody want to try giving the five-minute "how Noisebridge works"
>>>> talk?  (I think we should have at least three of the "How Noisebridge Works"
>>>> talks from three people with different perspectives...)
>>
>> I'd really like to see something happen even if its simply an informal
>> discussion about Consensus at Noisebridge past, present, future.  It
>> would be nice to get together everyone who wants to do some Consensus
>> Hacking to chat it out in more depth.
>>
>> I'd be happy to organize or facilitate something if there is
>> sufficient interest.
>>
>> j-
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 5:27 PM, Jared Dunne<jareddunne at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> Shannon-
>>>
>>> I like this idea.  I've used Consensus before in some anti-war groups.
>>>   I'd be happy to talk briefly about that experience.
>>>
>>> I'm all for Autonomous action (do-acracy as NB calls it), but when
>>> using consensus to work together we can do more than we can acting
>>> autonomously as individuals.  It's strange that consensus seems to be
>>> feared and avoided at NB.  I'm newish here so hearing someone give a
>>> talk on NB's experience with Consensus would be great to understand
>>> more about why that's the case.
>>>
>>> Depending on when you schedule this... and if I can get a chance to
>>> re-read that handbook I donated...  I could give an overview of some
>>> of the key insights it adds to the discussion.
>>>
>>> Jared-
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 1:16 PM, Shannon Lee<shannon at scatter.com>  wrote:
>>>> To resurrect an old thread with new information, Jared bought us a copy of
>>>> "Consensus: A New Handbook for Grassroots Social, Political, and
>>>> Environmental Groups" by Peter Gelderloos
>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/2011-January/020237.html
>>>>
>>>> I'd still like to do a seminar-style class-thing on Consensus process; I'm
>>>> imagining it as a set of lightning talks interspersed with Q&A and
>>>> Discussion periods.  Anybody have experience with consensus process outside
>>>> of Noisebridge who is willing to give a five-minute "how we did it at X"
>>>> talk?  Anybody want to try giving the five-minute "how Noisebridge works"
>>>> talk?  (I think we should have at least three of the "How Noisebridge Works"
>>>> talks from three people with different perspectives...)
>>>> --S
>>>> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Shannon Lee<shannon at scatter.com>  wrote:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>> I realized in watching the last couple of threads that there are people
>>>>> here who know a *lot* about running anarchist and consensus organizations.
>>>>> Would any of you be willing to put together a reading list, or possibly
>>>>> hold a symposium of some sort, on how this stuff works, and how it's
>>>>> supposed to work?
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> --S
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Shannon Lee
>>>>> (503) 539-3700
>>>>>
>>>>> "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Shannon Lee
>>>> (503) 539-3700
>>>>
>>>> "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
>>>>
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>>>>
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