At the Sustainable Economies Law Center, we often describe the work of collective governance of our organization as exercise — working out muscles we may not even know we have, muscles that empower us to claim agency over our futures, meet our shared needs together, and engage in good faith and collaborative discussion, debate, and collective solution-finding. This is not easy work. We could all use more practice.
Anyone who has been part of a collectively run project —an activist group, an organizing project, a worker self-directed nonprofit, a cooperative, an intentional living community — knows that the work of deciding together is rife with disagreement and conflict. Even when the intention is to be collaborative and share leadership, differences in power, rank, role, identity, personality and lived experience make it exceedingly challenging to create cultures and structures that truly allow everyone to contribute fully and fairly. These differences often lead to breakdown — relational disruptions, system failures, stuff not getting done. When stuff breaks down, and there is no boss to call the shots, we have to rely on each other to find the pathway out of the mess.
Read the rest at The Sustainable Economies Law Center
Add new comment