As Indian Tribes have become more involved in community and economic development they are finding themselves increasingly involved in their external environments. They need to interact with a wide range of county, state and federal agencies and political jurisdictions in the planning, development and operational phases of their projects.
Government agencies and tribes are inexperienced dealing with one another. Agencies can be confronted with much that is unknown and often have to deal with tribal governments, and the cultural values and perspectives of Indian people for the first time. The same may be true for the tribal representatives who either have no prior familiarity with the agencies or who have negative perceptions which may not be valid.
It is a learning experience for both, and the ensuing transactions can go either way: they can be successful in developing a productive working relationship, or people can end up talking past each other, failing to appreciate very real differences, and becoming unnecessarily adversarial. Getting off on the wrong foot can be costly to both sides.
Our upcoming workshop on: “Establishing Effective Relationships with California Tribes” is designed for agency people. It starts with basic information about the history of tribes’ relationships with the federal government and with state government in California. This is intended to give people a context with which to understand some of the prevailing attitudes and concerns on both sides. Our Workshop also examines how tribal governments work, how they are changing to meet new challenges, and how their leaders see themselves vis-à-vis outside governments. We examine “cultural sensitivities” as well as tribes’ strong beliefs that because they are sovereign legal entities they are entitled to be treated as any other government (city, state or national).
Against this backdrop or “picture”, we provide training in collaborative skills and processes that can be used to build and maintain cooperation and successfully resolve differences—no matter what the substantive area might be (e.g. education, social services, gaming, law enforcement, water, environmental regulation, toxic substances, natural resources, etc).
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We offer some effective cross—cultural communication tools that can be used by people to “keep their foot out of their mouths” in any multi-cultural setting.
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We provide a step-by-step approach to be followed in initiating, conducting and completing bi-lateral “government to government” negotiations.
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We provide training in “interest-based” negotiation and contrast this with “positional” and adversarial (“win/lose”) styles of negotiation.
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We clarify the difference between the “consultation” process and the “negotiation” process and what parties can realistically expect from each.
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One of the primary areas of emphasis in our training is on the importance of “process design” (the who, what, when, where and how of the negotiation itself).
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We identify a range of important procedural issues that need to be addressed and resolved to ensure a successful negotiation, and we emphasize the importance of recognizing that these are all negotiable by the parties, and negotiated before sitting down and trying to resolve the substantive problems that brought the parties to the table in the first place.
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We offer a range of tools and techniques for sustaining involvement by all the parties, resolving the “thorny” issues, and getting beyond “impasse”.
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We suggest ways of offering and responding to proposals, and
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We explore ways to “manage” negotiations between governments and complex organizations where the people at the table do not have final authority to “decide’ but instead “represent” others in their organizational hierarchies or constituencies who are not at the table but will have to ratify the final agreement.
The training is designed to be interactive. In addition to planned role plays, small group work, etc., there will be ample opportunity for participants to ask questions and provide their own examples.