Those advocating for Plymouth to switch to a mayor/council form of government argue that the 162-member Town Meeting format is unwieldy, slow, and inefficient. On the surface, it is difficult to refute this argument, but Town Meeting can provide something important that is not readily available to a mayor/council – a careful, thorough examination of each Article by 162 individuals with widely varying backgrounds.
Group problem-solving is a proven technique that is used extensively in industry to solve its most difficult problems. Briefly. Team Leaders are trained in techniques used to run these meetings that bring together individuals (managers, scientists, technicians, marketers) with all fields of experience deemed necessary to solve the problem. The underlying reason for its success is that everyone can build on an initial idea based on his or her experience, leading in the end to the best solution possible.
In order to sell this idea to upper management of the company that I worked for, managers were assembled and asked to detail what they would do to survive a plane crash in the Sahara Desert. They were then assembled into groups of 4 and asked the same question. Based on the individual answers, none of the crash victims would have survived. However, evaluation of the group survival plans indicated that 75% of the groups would have lived.
There is no doubt that problems facing those living in today’s world are more complicated. Instead of “black or white” alternatives, we are faced with increasing numbers of “gray” alternatives that must be carefully evaluated from many angles using as many points of view as possible.
Does this take more time? Most often it does but one useful exercise that is usually done near the end is the “what-if” question. What are the consequences if we are wrong? Does a sewer main break and cost a fortune to fix or cause health issues? Is a development built with undetected “fatal flaws” that will be OUR future responsibilities? If disastrous scenarios are possible, it is imperative for the problem-solving group to bear down and keep working on the problem until the possibility of disaster is averted.
Quicker is not always better. Smarter is preferable. My experience with Town Meeting decisions is that Town Meeting works hard “to get it right” and nearly always succeeds. Town Meeting is not broken and does not need to be fixed.
– Don Williams
Williams is a Town Meeting member representing Precinct 8.