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Participant Driven Processes

  • Sustainability
  • Multi-Party
  • Organizational
  • Governmental
  • First Nations
  • International
  • Family Business

Sustainability

Representative assignments and activities include:

  • Developed and led a dialogue amongst communities that are currently the interim hosts of nuclear waste management facilities to help inform the development of a major initiative to determine the long term approach to the future management of Canada’s used nuclear fuel
  • Participated in the design and development of an initiative to engage all key communities of interest in critical safety issues associated with vehicular transportation in the forest sector, and facilitated the Summit Meetings tasked with informing the creation of an Action Plan
  • Worked with a leadership team in the conceptualization of a major international conference tasked with the challenge of defining a course of action for the future sustainability of the oceans, and facilitated a highly focused dialogue among invited representatives who represented international ocean experts, government managers and policy makers, First Nations, NGOs and coastal communities
  • Facilitative leadership to an Advisory Panel established by a global energy company, consisting of its CEO and Senior Executive Team and senior representatives of prominent environmental organizations and institutions, to provide advice and direction on the development of a world class energy project.
  • Competency and capacity building within a multi national company in giving effect to its Sustainability Policy through the delivery of programs involving worldwide management.
  • Facilitation of relationship building activities between and among corporate, community, environmental and First Nations within the mining, and oil and gas sectors.

Multi-Party

Representative assignments and activities include:

  • Facilitated and coordinated dialogues across Canada (1998-1999) involving representative voices of diverse perspectives (indigenous, government and churches) to explore the development of alternatives to litigation in dealing with the complex and sensitive issues relating to abuse within residential schools.
  • Mediated the process of reaching resolution of difficult environmental and intra-agency issues surrounding the siting of a marina in an ecologically sensitive area adjacent to a national park.
  • Mediation among major corporate players and regulatory interests to bring into development a major urban development site with significant contamination problems.
  • Managed a multi-party forum bringing together the public and private sectors through the participation of government ministries, industry, local government, labour, environmental groups, and several other groups and interests with a stake in addressing the challenge of climate change.
  • Built a consensus amongst all of the diverse and competing interests within one of the most significant watersheds on the Pacific Coast to address fisheries related issues, and managed the process for 3 ½ years.
  • Worked with 30 organizations in developing consensus around recommendations to broaden potential for diversity of wildlife uses and related economic opportunities.
  • Mediated complex issues involving First Nations, and other governmental interests relating to the separation of a First Nations community and related land claims issues, and other similar assignments relating to leasehold interests, right-of-ways, fisheries and fish habitat.

Organizational

Representative assignments and activities include:

  • Facilitation and training in the development of a framework for dispute resolution and prevention within a municipal government.
  • Facilitative leadership in strategic planning exercises in many diverse contexts – within corporations and organizations, and the not-for-profit sector.
  • Leading a change process within a major School Board involving 15 constituent organizations in establishing new ways to build more effective working relationships.
  • Assisted in the development within a national policing organization new approaches to the resolution of internal grievances and change in the organizational culture.

Governmental

Representative assignments and activities include:

  • Facilitated and led discussions amongst local governments to enhance working relationships and effective decision making within a collaborative governance structure in a major metropolitan area
  • Facilitated an intergovernmental dialogue among senior public managers on the challenges associated with charting collaboration in building competitve cities and healthy communities.
  • Working with governance bodies to build principles and structures on which to establish meaningful and effective working relationships at the local level in anticipation of the conclusion of a Treaty in an urban context, and its subsequent implementation.
  • Worked within the oil and gas sector to build a basis through which agencies, industry, First Nations, local government, stakeholder organizations, and tenure holders to build consensus around the regulatory architecture and planning processes to enable more effective interactions with respect to project development, approvals, and the resolution of disputes.
  • Negotiated legislation to implement the 1986 Mercury Pollution Settlement requiring passage in both the House of Commons and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
  • Extensive involvement throughout his career with senior and middle level public managers within the many assignments involving governmental interests, and as participants in the Executive and Management Development Programs offered by the CSE professionals.

First Nations

Representative assignments and activities include:

  • Design and facilitation of a workshop involving senior representatives from the federal and provincial government and First Nations with respect to significant province-wide self-government negotiations
  • Mediation of “overlap issues” involving two First Nations communities involved in the finalization of land claims treaty implementation and self-government
  • Facilitated leadership of a capacity-building training program in the management of internal and external relationships of managers within a First Nations community
  • Working in relationship building and dispute resolution contexts involving First Nation in diverse settings: a major financial institution, multinational resource companies and several government agencies.
  • Mediating complex issues involving First Nation communities, and other governmental interests, with respect to the separation of the communities and related land issues.
  • Building consensus amongst the diverse and competing interests, both public and private, including extensive First Nations participation, within a major watershed to address fisheries related issues.
  • Mediation of conflicts involving First Nations and provincial ministries over the use of and compensation for road rights-of-way.
  • Mediation of “overlap issues” involving First Nation communities arising out of Treaty making initiatives.
  • Facilitating a workshop involving the development of a process for the negotiation and transfer of programs and services involving Territorial, Federal, and First Nations interests.
  • Developing and facilitating a First Nation Community Program in Consensus Building and Dispute Resolution, and related training program.
  • Mediation / facilitation with respect to Treaty negotiation related issues from wildlife management to local government relationships.
  • Involvement over many years in complex negotiation based processes involving First Nations interests, including as counsel to the Whitedog First Nation in the Mercury Pollution Settlement (and the development of associated provincial and federal legislation) in North-Western Ontario (1980’s); and in the 1978 Agreement reached with respect to hydro-electric development impacts as counsel to 12,000 Cree people in Northern Manitoba.

International

Representative assignments and activities include:

  • Design and facilitation of a workshop for an international financing agency involving participants from within the organization and the stakeholder community in the review and development of a major policy initiative with a global reach
  • Facilitation within, between and among the many communities of interest with a stake in the international mining and minerals sector, including global mining companies, non-government organizations, and indigenous and local communities broadly in respect of their relationships, on specific issues, and in the context of a global project being given leadership by an international institute headquartered in London.
  • Workshop leader in Berlin, Germany to assist in informing emerging European approaches to the use of negotiation based processes in complex environmental and multi-party disputes (1995).
  • Co-facilitated a multi-stakeholder initiative involving the Mining Sector within Latin America (1998).
  • Delivered a Sustainability Workshop for the worldwide management team of a major international mining company including representatives of several major NGO organizations in Papua New Guinea (1999).
  • A panelist on The Roster of the US Institute for Environmental Dispute Resolution.
  • Recognition and extensive relationships within the field of consensus building and dispute resolution – through involvement with SPIDR, extensive speaking engagements, and work assignments.

The Family Business

The Family Business: Building the Bright Side, Dealing with the Dark Side

Family-owned business is the cornerstone of the economy in many societies. These enterprises new and old, big and small face special challenges. Each situation is unique, but the underlying reality is always the same.

Work walks home, and home walks to work. In a family business, separating how the family makes its living from how the family lives is not easy. It is a lot trickier than simply living out the old adage of “leaving work at the office.”

Complexities build out from there in many different directions. Businesses get bigger and smaller; and so do families. Families evolve through generations; businesses live through cycles. Businesses are all different and so are the talents of different family members. How people interact today is always affecting how they will interact tomorrow, in the boardroom or at a wedding.

The future has a long reach; so does history. These factors drive the dynamics of change that challenge every family-based business in very special ways. People and businesses deal with these challenges in many different ways at different times, sometimes successfully, often not. Tensions lurk beneath the surface straining relationships and constraining potential. When they bubble to the surface, they can do so quickly, and in very destructive ways. The stakes are high when that happens as both the viability of the business and the integrity of the family are put at risk.

The most agonizing question is usually the first one “How do I open this conversation. How will others see it? What will Dad think?” “Will Mom be upset that we are bringing this stuff up?” “Will she support us if her brothers all get on her back over us creating a fuss?” How to open these most difficult of conversations is the most difficult step, and all too often they are postponed and postponed and postponed due to fear of the consequences.

Continuing relationships, positive or negative, are a fact of life, if not within the four corners of the business then within the family that surrounds it. The potential for disagreements is inevitable, as in any organization, but the consequences are of a different character. The fired son-in-law off to a new employer is one thing, but the angry sister whose connection to the business lies in the hands of her older brother is another. The complexion of the relationships and the nature of the disagreements change over the generations, as the degree of awareness and involvement is likely to increase for some in the family, and decrease for others.

Changes in the external circumstances of family members play out in the other direction. Some members develop viable alternatives that attract their energy into other fields; others remain dependent on the business that sustained them as children, or wish to re-affiliate with it if their own successes in life have proven elusive.

No doubt there will be many situations where the conventional wisdom and toolkits of management consultants, lawyers, and accountants will be key. But there is also the inevitable risk that the expectations on them will be to help solve problems that they do not see, or if they do, they really have no experience in knowing what to do. Of course, they will know when there are personal and family problems, but they will, not surprisingly, search for the practical business solution, and see that as what needs to drive sensible family decisions. The difficulty is that everyone sees “sensible” in his or her own way, and the angry brother or sister does not see it in quite the same way as the consultant. Her books of accounting are childhood memories; his are numbers and ledgers.

Take the situation of a family business that is doing reasonably well, with family relationships that are reasonably harmonious. However, there are cracks showing. Everyone has an ownership interest. The important business decisions continue to be made by soon-to-be-retired parents. The oldest sibling, a sister, and two brothers have worked in the business full-time since high school. Another younger brother and sister are both university-educated professionals, an opportunity that had not been possible for the older three. There is a growing sense in the parents that they need to give leadership to the family in building firm foundations for the next generation. They are uncertain how best to open the conversation. They know that this will be a sensitive topic for everyone.

They have concluded that they should involve someone external to the family, some professional in situations of this nature. Who? That is the question they are struggling with.

This is not a legal problem, although at some point some legal papers may need to be prepared. Nor is it an accounting problem, but at some point estate planning and tax advice may be helpful. This is not the usual terrain for any traditional management consultants they have met, and they believe they need assistance from someone outside the family, most particularly in preparing a shareholders’ agreement and a long-term plan. What are the questions they should ask?

The CSE professionals bring a unique and specialized body of knowledge and experience to help give the special leadership required in these kinds of situations, including:

  • Opening the sensitive conversation
  • Working with the parties to build a way in which to work through the challenges ahead
  • Involving other professionals in a timely and effective way when their talents need to come into play
  • Dealing with specific differences and impasses that may threaten the process
  • Building an effective framework to implement the understandings reached to ensure the long-term sustainability of both the business, and family relationships.