“No one reads anymore”
is a common refrain. Yet it takes two things to successfully pull of a cohousing community,
The ability of the participants to listen to each other.
And to read. Pictures alone don’t do it, and lessons learned alone is a sure way to go nowhere – they just tell you what didn't work, they don’t tell you how to get to what does work – that’s a deliberate other process.
Successful reading for the 21st century looks something like this.
a. Flip through the book, look at all of the photos. It gives you great context (About 15 minutes).
b. Go back and read all of the captions. Those sound bites in rapid fire will surprise you, and make you more curious (About 45 minutes).
c. Read the text that draws you in based on the curiosities developed by the captions and the photos. Most people will skip about half of the narrative – they are just not interested, but hopefully others in the group are. You will know what you need to know to be a responsible co-designer, co-developer, and hopefully others will know the rest.
And Bob’s your uncle. Give it a try.
My last two books, Cohousing Communities (900 photos and 900 captions) and Neuro-Inclusive Community Design (about 450 photos and 450 captions) were both developed with this methodology in mind, and this methodology has seen results. More cohousing groups are coming to the table ready to go, ready to participate, ready to contribute, and ready to work as a team.
