added by Keely Adler and · updated 9mo ago
On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden
- Consensus doesn’t mean unanimous support. Often, it means decisions are passed with some people being like, “I disagree with this, but I’m okay with it passing.” That, I think, is really healthy because it doesn’t mean everyone agrees; it means everyone is okay with something moving on because there’s enough trust in the group.
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- If you make a cooperative, you have to know that you can’t design them; you can only grow them, like plants. If you grow one and you do it with other people, then everyone will undoubtedly have ideas about what the best way to grow it is.
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- I like to think of gardening metaphors, like growing trust. You have to water it—not too much, not too little. And things will always grow in different directions and with different outcomes than you’re expecting, but that’s okay.
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- When you trust in other people, really incredible and unexpected things can happen. Usually, it’s things where you’re like, “Oh, I didn’t even think of doing that,” or, “Oh, I don’t think that will work out well,” but it actually does. Part of trusting other people might involve letting go of certain images you have of what the outcome should look ... See more
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- There are a lot of organizational structures and lived practices embedded in our bodies that we just enact by default. But through explicit facilitation practices or when we make meetings happen in a certain way, that helps change these conditioned ways of operating. In the process of learning to work this way, what really helps is, again, trust. T... See more
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- in a cooperative, you are one plant contributing to the larger garden. Has it been hard to learn to operate this way yourself, and then teach other people how to operate this way? What has it been like to create these sorts of non-hierarchical spaces within a country that functions primarily through capitalist and patriarchal structures?
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- My theory about power is that you never feel powerful, you only feel comfortable. Like, rarely are we like, “Ah ha ha, I am so powerful!” It’s more like, “I just feel really comfortable,” you know? But not feeling powerful usually manifests as feeling uncomfortable.
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- self-checking means asking, “Do I feel really comfortable?” And if I do, I’m probably holding some power that I’m not too aware of.
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago
- social acknowledgement of burnout, before it gets out of hand and things stop being sustainable, is really important.
from On growing a cooperative like you’d grow a garden by Willa Köerner
Keely Adler added 2y ago