Groundwork Concepts

Socialist Consciousness

• Socialist consciousness is a central concept and necessary practice for building a strong collective and a good socialist society. From it stems many other concepts and practices that are discussed in the red docs. Socialist consciousness means to have consideration for the welfare of the collective and others without neglecting individual needs. It is a simple concept and makes sense but it requires effort and can be difficult to implement because most of us are products of an individualistic society in which we are taught to put our own welfare before that of all others. Socialist consciousness does not mean, however, that you have to be a martyr. Suppressing your own needs can not only lead to a bad decision but one that may be difficult to support in the future. (collectively approved 7-29-91)

  Examples:

  • As Kelly gets ready to leave for the day, she notices that she has made quite a mess of the computer area, the front counter is a fire hazard, and there are two dozen boxes of books outside the back door. Leaving would satisfy Kelly's need to get home before rush hour; however, this action does not take into account Lorna's need for a clean work area. By taking five minutes to clean up her mess and help Lorna with the boxes, Kelly can still get home in a reasonable amount of time and Lorna is saved the frustration of cleaning up after someone else.
  • The collective is discussing the possibility of staying open later. Some members of the collective say this is necessary to meet the needs of customers who have difficulty coming into the store during the day. Betsy is uncomfortable with the idea of being in the store alone at night as there is little security available. However, since it appears that most people seem to like the idea and Betsy would like to see Groundwork more accessible to the community she suppresses her own need to feel safe. By playing the "martyr," Betsy may find herself feeling put upon whenever she's in the store late at night. Also, had she expressed her needs at the meeting she would have discovered that Niti and Chloe felt the same way and perhaps a different decision could have been made such as staying open late only one night a week.

Consensus Decision-Making

• This is when people agree to struggle until everyone in the group accepts the decision and agrees to implement it without resentment. Acceptance by each individual means they can live with it; that they believe it to be the best decision by the group even though they personally may think there is a better decision.

  Consensus decision-making requires each person to take seriously the values and beliefs of all the others in the group and be open to change. If people survive the struggle to do this initially, consensus gets easier as they resolve differences in values and have common experiences. consensus decision-making develops our socialist consciousness, that is, considering the effect of our actions on others, which in turn makes consensus decision-making easier. Similarly, majority-rule decision-making encourages our individualist consciousness.

Critical Relationships

• A critical relationship is one in which people are committed to review each others' work (long term as well as day-to-day), and to provide feedback, in the form of criticism and praise, as well as support. It's important to set aside time for a periodic (every two weeks?) review, especially while the relationship is beginning. A little encouragement goes a long way toward making a critical relationship successful.

Criticism, Self-Criticism, and Praise

• This is used to look critically at our work to keep a view of how we are progressing toward our goals. Criticism of a person (including criticism of ourselves) should always be done in a constructive and loving sense. When animosities develop they can be handled through the criticism process if each person will take responsibility for his/her feelings and try to understand why the other person feels the way he/she do. Groundworkers have committed themselves to using criticism to keep bad situations from developing further, and to use praise to keep a good situation going.

  Since these are important concepts in our collective we've devoted quite a lot of space in the Red Docs to them. A fuller description of criticism, self-criticism, praise, and critical relationships is in the back of the Red Docs.

Clearness

• Clearness is our attempt to focus on the relationship between some person and the collective as well as the individuals in the collective. It's a time to make, and hopefully resolve, criticisms and praises, and to air past bad and good feelings. It's an opportunity to consider one's strengths and weaknesses and lay the groundwork for changes.

  Usually we use it when someone is making a higher commitment, for example, coming into the collective. It can also be used to eliminate tenseness and to focus collective problems, or just because someone wants to re-examine their Groundwork relationships and criticisms. More about this in the back of the Red Documents, including how to prepare for it.

Responsibility and Residual Responsibility

• Responsibility means doing what you say you are going to do, that is, keeping your commitments. Responsibility is necessary to be a good follower, RR means taking responsibility for an entire project or job. (The term "residual responsibility" comes from taking responsibility for all the "residual" or left-over responsibility after others have taken responsibility for specific parts of the job).

  The person who takes RR should get an overview of the problem, plan for the future, see that all the work gets done, and whatever else it takes. It doesn't mean they have to do all the work themselves, but it does mean they have to know how to break down the work and get others to help. It also means that they should make a disciplined withdrawal if they can't do the job. Knowing how to take RR is necessary to be a good leader.

  Responsibility is a fond subject of ours, probably because we've had so much trouble getting people to actually be responsible. There is more on the subject under "Work."

Collective

Day Coordinator

• The Day Coordinator (DC) is the person who has residual responsibility for the collective's work on a particular day. In the bookstore, collective members take responsibility for different days of the week. They are the ones who train new staffers, see that problems get solved (or shuffled to the correct people), and do whatever it takes to keep the store going.

Disciplined Withdrawal

• When you leave the collective, even if it's only for a little while, it's a good idea to take the time to make a disciplined withdrawal. The main point of this is to cause the collective as little pain as possible. When anyone leaves the collective they leave behind vacancies in the things they were responsible for. If you just run off with no warning, it will take longer for things to start functioning again in the jobs you are leaving.

  You should explain to the collective that you are leaving, why you are leaving, and for how long. Places to do this are: (in order of preference) at a meeting, in the daybook, to a core collective person. It's especially nice for you to give any criticisms of the collective before you go (even if they aren't the reason you're leaving -- we're still interested in your thoughts).

  A disciplined withdrawal also involves handing over responsibilities. Make an announcement that there will be open jobs needing volunteers and be willing to train someone to take over. A high level would be to write up a job description.

  A particularly costly undisciplined withdrawal is the "fade away." Here, someone lowers their commitment because they "don't have enough time," but doesn't tell anyone. "Don't have enough time" really means not high enough in their priorities. One should be straight as to why priorities have changed, and let the collective know whether it's temporary or permanent.

  One should also make a disciplined withdrawal from any job he/she has taken RR for, but can't complete or keep up with. For instance, suppose someone has taken RR for publicity and the job description includes keeping classified ads in local newspapers, keeping a good general leaflet around, etc. If they can't do it, they should make the collective aware through the Daybook or at a meeting. Possible solutions would include:

  • taking responsibility for only part of a job (say classifieds) and looking for someone else to "take RR" for overall publicity,
• keeping RR temporarily until someone else takes it, or,
• lowering the expectations for the job.

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