Every community makes hundreds of decisions a year, from accepting a new family to what color to paint the barn. How those decisions get made shapes everything: whether people feel heard, whether the work gets done, and whether neighbors still like each other afterward.
There's no perfect method. But some methods fit communities far better than others, and a few simple practices make almost any method work better. This lesson compares the main options and helps you design your own.
- 1Compare voting, consensus and consent decision-making.
- 2Explain how blocking can go wrong, and how communities fix it.
- 3Decide which decisions belong to the whole group, a circle or one person.
- 4Run a fair, focused community meeting.
- 5Write a clear proposal.
Four ways to decide
More than half
Quick and familiar. But in a small community, the people who lose a vote are your neighbors, and repeated 6–5 votes can split a group into camps.
Two-thirds or three-quarters
Asks for broad support, so decisions have most of the group behind them. Often used as a fallback when other methods get stuck.
Everyone agrees
The group works until everyone can support a proposal or stand aside. Done well, it builds deep trust. Done poorly, one person can stop anything.
No reasoned objections
Used in sociocracy. The question isn’t “do you love it?” but “can you live with it, and is it safe to try?” Objections must be explained, and they’re used to improve the proposal.
Sociocracy grew from the work of Dutch educator Kees Boeke, who used it in his school in the 1920s, and engineer Gerard Endenburg, who developed it into a full method in his company in the 1960s and 70s. As one saying puts it: "With consensus, I must convince you that I’m right. With consent, you ask whether you can live with the decision."
When one person can stop everything
Many communities begin with consensus because it feels the most fair. But in its strictest form, consensus with unanimity, any single member can block any proposal, for any reason. Over years, that can turn into what some members call a "tyranny of the minority."
After 18 years of consensus with unanimity, Earthaven changed its rules in 2012. Now a block can be ruled invalid if 85% of members present disagree with it. Valid blockers meet with supporters to find a better proposal. If that fails, it takes two blocks, not one, to stop the original.
Here, if you block, you have to help find a solution. Blockers organize up to six meetings over three months to write a new proposal together. If no agreement comes, the original proposal can pass with a 75% supermajority. Over 25 years, very few proposals were ever blocked.
Does the proposal pass?
Set how each member feels about a proposal, like building a new chicken coop on shared land. See how the same feelings play out under five different decision rules.
The five-step scale is inspired by Sam Kaner’s “gradients of agreement.” In a simple vote, the first three count as yes.
Who decides what
Not every decision needs the whole community. Ostrom's eighth principle from Lesson 1 says larger groups work best when smaller teams handle their own areas. Hand the small, everyday decisions to the people closest to the work, with a clear budget and a duty to report back, and save whole-group time for what really matters.
Your decision map
Who should decide each of these? Our suggestions are filled in. Change them to fit your group.
Meetings that work
Most communities meet once or twice a month. A good meeting has a written agenda shared ahead, clear roles, and a firm end time. A meal before or after makes everything easier.
| Part | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Opening round | 10 min | Each person says one sentence: how they’re arriving today. |
| Reports | 10 min | Short updates from each circle, written ahead when possible. |
| Proposals | 50 min | One or two proposals, each with time to clarify, react and decide. |
| Recap | 10 min | Read back every decision: who does what, by when. |
| Closing round | 5 min | One word or sentence from each person on how it went. |
| Total | 85 min | Then share a meal together. |
- Facilitator: keeps the conversation fair and moving, and doesn’t push their own view
- Timekeeper: watches the clock for each agenda item
- Note-taker: writes down every decision, who does what and by when
- Vibes-watcher: notices when people are tired, upset or left out, and calls a break
For big questions, go around the circle and let each person speak once, without interruption, before open discussion. Quiet members get heard, and the loudest voices don’t take over. Use a talking piece if it helps, like a smooth stone or a pinecone from the land.
Writing a good proposal
Most meeting trouble starts with a vague idea brought to the whole group. A short written proposal, sent out a few days ahead, lets people think it over and come with questions instead of surprises.
- The problem or opportunity, in two sentences
- What we propose to do
- Who will do it, and by when
- What it will cost, in money and time
- How we’ll know if it’s working
- When we’ll review it
Problem: the hens are crowded and foxes have found the old coop.
Proposal: build a new coop for 20 hens beside the orchard.
Who and when: the land circle, before the first frost.
Cost: $900 from the land budget and three work days.
Success: no losses to predators this winter.
Review: at the spring meeting.
Practice a group decision
Choose a real but low-stakes decision, like the date of a harvest feast or a new garden bed, and practice the whole process: proposal, rounds, a consent decision and a recap.
You'll need
- A one-page written proposal, sent ahead
- The agenda above
- Volunteers for the four roles
- A talking piece
- Your decision map
Do it together
- Assign the roles for this meeting.
- Open with a round: one sentence each.
- Present the proposal, then a round of clarifying questions.
- Do a reaction round: what do you like, and what worries you?
- Improve the proposal together, then ask for objections.
- Decide by consent, and write down who does what by when.
- Close with a round: how did that process feel?
Include the young
- Let children take part in a decision that affects them, like a play area
- Teens can take a role: timekeeper or note-taker
- Practice a round at the family dinner table
Save the proposal, the meeting notes and your decision map for your progress record.
Every voice, and work that gets done
Good decision-making is a quiet kind of respect. It says each person's voice matters, and it trusts people to care for their part of the whole. Groups that practice it well often find their meetings become something they look forward to: a time to listen, to laugh, and to see the village take shape.
Next: the decisions with the highest stakes of all. How to own land together in a way that protects every family and the land itself.
Your Lesson 3 worksheet
Work through these together. Your answers save on this device as you type, and print cleanly for your records.
Progress record
What this lesson practices:
- CivicsComparing systems of decision-making, majority rule and minority rights (NCSS theme 6; C3 D2.Civ.9).
- MathFractions and percentages: majority, two-thirds and three-quarters thresholds.
- English language artsCollaborative discussion and persuasive writing (Common Core SL.1, W.1).
- Life skillsListening, cooperation and responsible decision-making (CASEL).
Standards mapping is a draft. If you use charter or ESA funds, confirm it with your education specialist.
Sources for this lesson
- Global Ecovillage Network — why Earthaven Ecovillage changed its decision-making method (Diana Leafe Christian)
- Cohousing Association — how the N Street consensus method helps cohousing work
- Wikipedia — Sociocracy
- Sociocracy For All — is “good enough” good enough?
- Wikipedia — Gradients of agreement scale (Sam Kaner)
- Foundation for Intentional Community — governance and decision making with Diana Leafe Christian