British Columbia is in the midst of a process to finally conclude treaties between the federal and provincial government and First Nations in British Columbia.  This is very much unfinished business, and it is a highly charged and emotional undertaking.  In the hinterland regions of the province, the issues are fairly straight forward, but treaty making in the Vancouver region is incredibly complex with more than 20 local governments, 3 Regional Districts, and lots of quasi governmental jurisdictions like water districts and port authorities.  Over 1.2 million people live in a region claimed by 6 First Nations.  At the negotiating table with these First Nations are federal and provincial governments with little more than a token representative from local government.

• Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee home page

The Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee, which represents local government interests in the treaty process and the Tsleil Waututh Nation (TWN) decided to co-sponsor a community to community forum to explore common issues that face their futures together.  The theme they picked was "Our Communities Together" with a poetic sub theme:

"Together our communities touch the past, hear the present, see the future; Together we seek to understand and respect our differences, identify current and common issues and develop co-operative solutions."

They took a great leap of faith on their part and opted for Open Space, not knowing whether or not the conflict that was sure to occur would be contained by the process.  The tremendously difficult task of convincing local politicians to let go of their need to have a controlling process and a predetermined agenda was handled masterfully by the steering committee.

I structured the day for maximum relationship building.  Four 1.5 hour sessions were held with no convergence or action planning.  Instead I asked that each group identify one way the discussions could be "taken out of the room" at some point during their discussions.  But the important part of the day was going to be the interaction that would occur, and this is what I was looking forward to.  As it turned out, one group did convene an action planning session after they had finished meeting, and they continued on with a smaller group for a half hour or so while they nailed down commitments.

38 people showed up, about two thirds of whom were local government politicians and staff, and the rest were from five First Nations.  The going was slow in the agenda setting, as people were really quite nervous about coming forward.  After a long time with lots of silences, we had 15 topics, 13 of which were reported on.  Interestingly, 9 of the groups were convened by First Nations reps, while 5 were convened by local government folks (including one on "Tradition and Chaos" proposed by a mayor/physicist).  One group was convened by a third party group who was also invited.

It seemed to me that the subjects were mostly foundational, relating to the task of building relationships.  I was expecting more concrete issues, but clearly the group was not ready to deal with these.  It was like returning to square one, and asking some very basic questions about each other.  I was surprised at how little each knew of the other.

We could hardly have asked for two more conflicted groups of people to come together.  I am certain now that if we had pre-determined the agenda and proposed concrete topics for people to work on together, we would have set up uncontainable conflict.  The agenda would have been too stressful to the embryonic relationships that were forming, and for sure they would have broken these delicate bonds.

That isn't to say that conflict did not arise.  But it was dealt with in the groups.  One participant told me that he thought the reason for this lay in the fact that there were no facilitators.  Ordinarily, combatants would have looked to a facilitator to resolve the conflict, but when talk became heated and emotional, he noted that everyone looked around and then realized that they were on their own.  THEY had to take responsibility for resolving the conflict.  And they did.  I think part of this is that the Law of Two Feet means that people have the choice of avoiding conflict at the outset, but if they find themselves in conflict, they realize that they are solely responsible for being there.  They can resolve it or leave.  And no one left until things were smoothed out.

It should also be said that the lack of a predetermined agenda makes it very difficult for people to prepare for the meeting by becoming positional.  People are therefore open when they arrive, and they maybe nervous or scared or angry, but they aren't positional.  Until we set the agenda there's nothing to fight against.

The result was discussions that were shockingly frank in terms of preconceptions and assumptions, yet generally stayed very civil.  Those who seemed to be spoiling for a fight never seemed to get one.

The lesson that Open Space grows appropriate structure came home for me very clearly, and in a truly humorous way.  You have to remember that probably 80% of the participants were politicians: chiefs, councilors (both Band Councilors and municipal ones) and mayors.  And these people do their best work during coffee breaks --  that is where the deals are made.  We did not schedule coffee breaks but the group took them anyway!  It took between 20 and 30 minutes between sessions for everyone to get into groups away from the coffee table.  They were busy networking and relationship building!  Of course I let this go, never calling out the times or forcing people to get down to work.  Appropriate structure was growing before my eyes, and it worked absolute magic.  The result was that people got to know each other in the groups and deal with heavy issues there and then process that experience in the impromptu coffee breaks.  There was a real sense of watching the group breathe in and out as they moved between the two forms of structure.  It was a very beautiful dance.

The closing circle was very special.  The co-sponsoring mayor proclaimed the day an historic occasion, and said that he had finally found a meeting process that worked.  He cited all the years of acrimonious public meetings and declared himself officially sick and tired of them.  Open Space surprised him, and he stated that his expectations were blown away.  He called it an exceptional day.  Several others remarked on how their eyes had been opened for the first time to people they only held dim stereotypes about.  This comment was shared by both Aboriginal and non Aboriginal people.  One Aboriginal person said that she wanted to see what we had started "spread out like Amway!" A pyramid scheme of process!  Several speakers concluded by remarking on the sense of hope and optimism that had been generated, despite the hard truths that were revealed and the heavy differences that still existed.

I understand that both the mayor and the chief who had cosponsored the meeting did interviews with CKNW, a local radio station, after the meeting.  The news item read as follows:

"60 First Nations and local government representatives from around the lower mainland have held their first ever 'community to community' forum which may eventually open the door to a landmark 'urban treaty.'

Forum co-chair, North Vancouver District Mayor Don Bell says the delegates spent Thursday discussing issues that could eventually pave the way for comething entirely new.

'What we're moving toward here is really the first big urban treaty, so we're breaking new ground as we go through.'

Co-chair Chief leonard George of the Tsliel-Waututh First Nation says if land and resources are already allocated, business becomes the key.'

'I think in time we'll probably be involved in import and export, we already have our own taxation base, we're developing eco-tourism, cultural tourism.'

Both men say the relaxed atmosphere of the forum opened their eyes to new solutions they hope to work on in the coming months.

.PDF Format Documents related to this event:

• Media release
• One of the invitations
• Complete Summary of Proceedings