Community Consensus Institute

I am learning in my own life’s journey, and through my life’s work, that past trauma is a key ingredient in many unresolved conflicts. Usually, I observe that when I do conflict resolution work, there is a lot of childhood trauma of various intensities involved with the current conflict. More recent trauma can also be at play and influencing the dynamics. I am finding a lot of experience with ongoing trauma in this region.

Trauma seems to really impact us emotionally. Trauma also seems to have a physical or physiological affect on people. I heard two research stories recently, which support the notion that trauma is more than just an emotional issue to resolve. One study shows that people who actually have a larger lower part of the brain, where the reptilian and mammalian brain originates, tend to be more fearful. Another study shows that under repeated trauma, the neurons grow more receptors to transmit chemical messages. With continued trauma, these receptors and spaces between neurons become calcified. This creates an automatic flow of information between neurons rather than a delayed reaction through a chemical transfer of information.

The lower brain’s primary focus is survival of self. It senses what is occurring in the world around the individual, and through a screening of potential risk or harm, begins to develop actions for survival. The heart rate goes up, breathing quickens, blood flows, and there is more acuity in necessary senses for survival. The body prepares to act for fight or flight. This is automatic and happens first. People that have been highly traumatized in life are often hyper-sensitive, and spending a lot of energy looking for danger. Due to a chemical disconnect that occurs when threatened, we literally “flip our lid.” Our higher brain gets disconnected from our lower brain for a certain period during times of great stress. The higher brain, the neo-cortex and frontal lobe, is where rational, cognitive thinking occur.

I am not sure if we can listen respectfully if we are terrified. Respectful listening requires one to calm down and be present. Respectful listening requires one to stop their own story in order to listen to another, particularly if the other story is opposite of our own. I have found even now, with all my own personal work with resolving the trauma in my life, that if I get triggered, my higher brain shuts down and I cannot hear what is being said. I just cannot recall what a person was saying. Respectful listening is required in order to change our beliefs about a situation, to be able to understand a new perspective. Behaviors, strategies and actions change based on the core focus about beliefs about the past, present and future.

I was at an international conference in Salzburg, Austria many years go. One of the presenters, Wit MacMillan, former Vice President of Cargill International, gave a presentation about the adoption of sustainable practices in agriculture. His main point was that the adoption level was based on the people’s understanding of the risk and reward of the practices. I had dinner with him and mentioned that I actually saw the situation as the individual’s “perception” of risk and reward. If we perceive something to be a certain way, we will choose our response / reaction based upon that view. Our beliefs often produce the reality we perceive, even if the outcome is totally influenced by our perception, not physical reality. This is what is called the self-fulfilling prophecy.

The successes that are associated with my work are often a result of my ability to help people change their belief about the potential outcomes. If individuals focus on a fear-based outcome, this is usually what is manifested. I often find that people in conflict are already living their worst outcomes. If they focus their mind on a hope-based outcome, this is usually what is manifested. Understanding how the human brain works with fear and hope, can allow shift to happen from one type of behavioral outcome to a different type of behavioral outcome. Consequently, there is a great opportunity to change large conflicts by making little shifts within individuals.

I have observed over the years of my work that a group is comprised of individuals. When I work to resolve group conflicts, such as in the workplace, between factions, or within families, being able to reduce the imaged fears of one individual can affect and ultimately shift the whole group. The saying goes “change one, you change them all.” If just one person could begin listening respectfully to understand the bigger picture, they could assemble this more complete story into a solution that works for everyone.

I have listened to many people here who have had guns, prisons, and soldiers involved in their life story. On this trip, I am met a few people who befriended me, and were willing to ask for guidance to change their situation. What I helped them do was to quiet the brain, and help shift the intensity of thought from their fears to their hopes. If the brain was going to be active, it might as well be active thinking about what they desired instead of what they were afraid of. In the future, either can happen. In the present, this is the current reality. And in reality, the only moment we have is now. The last second of life is gone, and the next second is not here yet. How we invest our efforts now, creates tomorrow.

The first step that seems to be vital in this shift is self-consciousness, or becoming self-aware. In order to shift the brain, when it gets racing into the worst possible outcomes, one must be aware that that pattern is occurring. There are feelings in the body that indicate that one is being driven by fearful thoughts. When a person becomes aware of those body sensations, they can then relax through meditation or breathing, and then shift their mind toward what they would like to see as the desired outcomes.

So, what difference could I do during my trip? What gifts could I leave? What contribution could I do in making a better world for my first granddaughter? First, the adage, “seek first to understand, then be understood,” has been on my mind. I have spent a lot of my trip observing and listening to what people were saying, and doing. I watched interactions, sometimes asking questions. The language gets in the way occasionally, so I rely on various perspectives of others when observing a situation. I have found myself tired from a lot of sensory work. I have been fortunate enough to have a good place to rest and meals graciously provided, often in family homes. I have also been able to find times to be still and quiet my own being.

There have been times that I have watched myself go through my worst outcomes and fears. There is a lot of unknowing and uncertainty. This creates quite a void for thought and emotion. I remember news reports from the past of events in this region. There are stories from people I have met. And there are the images of what I am seeing and experiencing now. I would like to understand the “other sides.” I can guess why I see the things that I see, however, respectful listening needs to occur for all people. Of course, I came here with the realization that this is a complex situation. There seems to be simplicity in the solution – remove fear, create hope.

The simple things that I have focused on are helping people in their daily lives deal with the trauma or resolve a small, yet significant issue. These simple things included helping a mother sleep more peacefully at night time, or helping set up a positive framework within a friend’s mind to solve a family conflict. My experiences have included helping a wife create healing in a family where there is an abusive husband with a family pattern of abuse, or helping a young high school daughter flesh out her dream for the future, and acknowledging her ability to achieve such a vision. Or the simple act of listening with respect, and being interested, the power of acknowledging that one exists. Waving to children brings great joy.

I heard many inspiring stores from various people over the last few days. Of all the messages that came to me, the biggest lesson tonight seems to be the importance of the simple thought “I exist, and I know that you recognize that I exist.”

I focused my thoughts today on what I sense from the people that I have been meeting in Palestine. This awareness is the simple importance of being recognized as a human being. That’s all! A simple nod to acknowledge someone’s presence; a thank you spoken, particularly in the native tongue; a friend opening a door for someone else; a touch of affection in a public place; listening intently without distraction; repeating accurately what another says; fulfilling a request of a loved one – these are all means to demonstrate that “the other” exists. You can see the results of these simple gestures on the faces of people.

I have heard in several recent workshops that people are feeling marginalized in their current situations of life. When people feel marginalized, they speak louder, or repeat themselves, or do protests. Just a simple genuine gesture makes all the difference in the world. When people get frustrated, irritated, resentful, or impatient with listening and connecting with another, it’s because they often know what needs to be done; and that is to do things “my way.” Different responses make all the difference in the world in terms of gaining common understanding and commitment; or rejection and disharmony. A simple gesture, a few seconds or minutes more… can change the world.

When we discriminate with people, where some are the privileged and others are excluded, the message really is that you don’t exist. As I walk through Palestine, I hear the cry of acknowledgement that “I exist, and I want to be recognized by you.” I see the cost of not recognizing basic human rights. The irony is that that at one time, “the other” didn’t exist, and has countered by becoming that one that denies existence. Just this year, I have seen this marginalization on North American Indian reservations, in Hawaii, in the Deep South, in cultures where women are marginalized, with the loggers on the Olympic Peninsula, in the halls of academy, and now here.

I understand the importance of this basic human need, as I have personally experienced non-existence. As a child, there were many times that my desires and wants were put off by others. It didn’t matter if I was cold, or my eyes hurt from chlorine, I wanted to play, or couldn’t sleep at night because I was terrified of stories “the church” told me. It was “the other” that only mattered. Today, in my own life’s journey, experiencing the place of “I exist, and I want to be recognized by you” really speaks home to me. I do the consensus building work that I do today, with the emphasis on providing the space for the unheard one to speak, is very important to me.

And it matters! I see it in their faces. I see it in the outcomes. People tell me thank you.

We arrived mid-afternoon in Al Aqaba. Mayor Haj Sami was waiting at the bus stop / village center in this rural agricultural village of approximately 300 people. Not far across the valley was a mock village used for Israel war games, within easy sight of the village.

Mayor Haj Sami met us in his office after we unloaded our luggage in the community guesthouse. Sami, began by using the word “Peace,” to live in peace with the neighbors. He then suggested that we take a tour of the village. Sami is in a wheel-chair, confined for life from a bullet he took from a soldier in 1971.

The five of us took off for a walk through this beautiful village. The air was warm and the recent rains were helping the crops to grow green and robust. We ate peas picked from the fields and given to us by local residents. The sheep were being herded on the surrounding hillsides, on their way back to the village for the night. Since I work with animals and ranchers, and am always amazed how much time it takes many western ranchers to gather livestock and how afraid their animals are of people, I marveled at the ease with which these animals followed the herders back to the corrals.

This village, like many in the Palestinian territory, has had houses and roads demolished by the army. Various reasons are given, yet there seems to be a lot of confusion about why. Questions come up like “What harm are these villagers to the army and the settlers, which continue to increase in the territory?” They talk about a double-standard of rules, one set for Israeli-Jews and another set for Palestinians. There are restrictions for travel and what and where things can be built.

Our afternoon walk was long, and covered the whole community on asphalt paved roads. Sami is able to navigate on these types of roads even with the steep pitches up and down the valleys. He introduced us to many community members. Every time a child saw Morgan, the young American woman who has been teaching in the village, they would shout with joy and wave to her. People were very kind. Sami continually used the word “peace” as we walked.

This village seems to be becoming successful with enhancing their community even with the recent and constant threat of military action to demolish the infrastructure. New roads have been paved and lined with low concrete barriers, which serve as property boundaries and prevents military equipment from running across farm and pasture land. They are expanding their school and playground facilities for the children. They are developing enterprises such as a brick making factory to build local homes and to export the extra bricks and a small clothing manufacturing facility.

What I experienced on this tour was a man in a wheel-chair and a community of people placing their focus on best possible outcomes, based on the offer of peace. The people I met came across to me as respectful, kind, generous people. I saw this in their interactions with each other and to us, as guests in the community. These are a people who are using their personal power with the hope of the outcome that they speak, which is peace.

I can see that this could be difficult for these villagers. The military’s mock village often hosts military games and has ammunition being fired just a few hundred yards from the town center. Recently, 100s of army soldiers came into the town and remained for several hours. The children are frightened, the women and men are frightened. And still Sami talks about the word “Peace.” We had dinner with Sami, his wife and a community leader. Upon my questioning of the meaning of a poster with Arabic words written on it, Sami shared the writing of the 99 beliefs for Islam, which talked about “right” living. When he finished, I asked him if he had anger about the bullet that took his legs and his abilities to do many things that he used to do. He said in the Koran, one can be anger or kind. It’s a choice. He chose to be kind. To be peaceful!

As I prepare for bed this evening after my first introduction to Al Aqaba, I reflect that I found a man and a community that has little “positional” power, yet they choose to use their “personal” power to do good. Even with the immense amount of trauma and disrespect, here is a community that is living their best possible outcomes already. There still is certainly more for them to discover and resolve, such as what can be done to eliminate the fear each night that the soldiers will return, someone will get shot, or homes and roads razed. Nevertheless, they are not giving up hope and are doing the very best that they can do to create a healthy future for their children, families, community, and larger world.

I go to bed thankful and grateful that I have met these people. They help me believe that even with traumatic backgrounds; it is possible for humans to continue to attain the higher level of being human. This makes me think of the book by Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, who in the Nazi concentration camp found that when human conditions are absolutely horrid, people can still aspire to the higher power of love. These are things that I believe, as I have seen these behaviors play out in so much of my work in the past. Perhaps, I can contribute additional skills for the people in Al Aqaba to set a new standard in Palestine that moves all people to a place of safety, respect, and dignity.

We are now heading to Tubas, then on to Al Aqaba. I’ve been able to interview a few people along the way, some who will be involved with our workshop on Wednesday.

I’ve found Palestine to be a beautiful, old area. I say “old” in terms of human impact. The land has lost a lot of soil and is very terraced after thousands of years of agriculture. There are a lot of rocky soils. When I view this landscape, my mind goes to the concept of sustainability for the human species. I see that the people here are closer to the land, and more capable than the typical American in being able to sustain themselves. However, I also see, like in America, a reliance on fossil energy to do work including making water available domestically and agriculturally, and transporting goods and services. There is a lot of produce grown and consumed locally. I find the standard of living is much higher here than what I observed through my work in Mali and Malawi.

I am finding the Palestinian people to be very gentle, generous, kind people. I do hear a significant amount of frustration with the way they are treated, as wholly separated from the Israeli-Jewish population. It does remind me of the painful separation that I see with American Indians, African Americans, and others that I have seen treated as a separate class. This, to me, is very disrespectful. As I mentioned in my previous paragraph that I pay attention to sustainability, I don’t believe that we, as a human species, will thrive, or even survive, as long as we treat people disrespectfully. I believe that our only hope for survival will occur when we are finally able to manage power, treat others equally, and manage our fears associated with issues like diversity and scarcity. Until we can learn to share, we will fight over what we have. I wrote about this concept in my previous post.

I hope to be able to listen to more Israeli Jews in order to understand their side of the story. I can only imagine that the behaviors that seem so disrespectful to the Palestinians have to do with the Jewish populations need to survive. I find that this region is full of traumatized human beings. Research is showing that continually traumatized human beings grow a significantly larger brain around the lower brain stem, which is our emotional center and our mechanism for “flight or fight,” the “reptile” part of our brain. Could the multitudes of time, based on trauma, have created a collection of people that have little hope of living in a world where fear is managed and best outcomes as humans is possible?

A shortcoming of the current philosophy that I see is that the “Second Law of Thermodynamics” for humans is at play in all interactions with humans. This is the concept that power has a tendency to equalize. That tendency is natural, and is always playing in the human realm. Consequently, if one force tries to suppress others with more power, the opposite group will resort to a power equalizing behavior. Either this can happen by increased the power of the opposing side through such actions similar to an “arms race” or through “sabotage.” Since shipment of arms has been limited in the region, then the only means for equalizing power, which I suggest has to happen according to natural law, is through sabotage.

Fighting this tendency of nature in humans is extremely costly in time, money, and the loss of human qualities. One can expect to spend a lot of time, money, and loss of human qualities by pursuing a route of doing power moves on other individuals. If one is wise, another opportunity is to seek means that equalize power in a respectful manner. The more powerful one can ask the lesser powered individual what can be done to resolve these issues, and act on those issues. Unfortunately, I wonder if there has been so much trauma in this region for so long, are humans capable of moving to concepts of power sharing and equalization.

Other options exist such as not choosing to stay in the conflict or rising above the conflict and learning new norms that tolerate or embrace the unique qualities of the other. Since this region is so significant from religious and ethnic reasons, choosing to leave is hardly an option. Rising above the conflict requires a new view of the situation, one where parties are willing to acknowledge and embrace the unique qualities of the other. Can individuals and entities that have such a history of trauma become capable of rising to this higher level?

After the initial interviews yesterday, the idea of the circle comes to my mind. When people sitting in the circle describe what they see from their viewpoint, the individual’s view is different than every other person in the circle. Sure, some people sit in closer proximity and see generally the same view. However, every degree that you move around the circle adds and loses part of the previous view.

The people who are opposite of the viewer describe a view that the original observer is not able to see. In conflict between two viewpoints, you will often hear forceful explanations of what is seen, and a denial that the opposite view exists. In reality, the full view of the circle exists, from each vantage point. Consequently, where you sit in the circle reflects only part of the view of the full circle.

In order to understand the full circle all parties need to describe their viewpoint. From that full view are we able to understand the room and what options exist for what we can do with “the room.” My work is about helping people to listen to each other, learn to accept the possibility that all views exist in a situation, and then determine what to do with the fuller view. I like to suggest the concept that in the future exists the possibility that the “best possible outcomes” can occur from this full view, which leads to incredible new perspectives that help people figure out how to get what they each want, through consensus. This is true power.

The same applies to what I am learning here. There are many views. Each of these views is correct, partially. They are only partially correct when understanding the full situation. I wonder that because there is so much fear and distrust of the other, is it possible to get all these views together and explore the possibility that common understanding can occur, people can acknowledge their fears and let go of these fears, shifting instead to their desired outcomes and discovering a path that can meet the needs of all parties? This is what I hope to discover on my trip. I have seen this outcome happen so successfully in many other situations. Can it happen in Israel?

Most people that I interviewed believed that it was impossible to meet the needs of all parties collectively. I asked one person what would meet the needs of all parties, and to give me an answer in the next morning. He did think about my question over the night and said the next morning “Tolerance and dignity. By coming from a base of being respectful to all ethnic-religious groups, it could be possible for the people to all co-exist in harmony and peace.” Nice answer! Now the question, “what do we need to do to create an environment of tolerance and dignity?”

I landed in Tel Aviv tonight. I am exhausted from not a lot of sleep over the past three nights. I don’t sleep well on planes though I did have whole rows of seats to myself on both my night flights (Washington, DC to Brussels and Brussels to Tel Aviv). I was able to get prone for a while. Now, I am waiting for my friend / colleague, Melissa Saul, to arrive around 3:30 am, Tel Aviv time. We will go to Jerusalem for some rest.

Since I am so tired, I find that my brain isn’t as sharp and tuned into observing things and human experiences that are happening around me. I do find that I am feeling relatively peaceful within myself. The Tel Aviv airport is a very nicely designed, artistically appealing facility. I moved through the system of passports, customs, and baggage claim with great ease. I also was observing the amount of security cameras, and most likely, security staff, to provide protection. I also thought about how much privacy we have lost in the name of safety within the United States since 9/11 and the advent of mobile technology.

I also reflected on how a system will tolerate an individual until “they” decide that they don’t want to embrace an individual. Things can easily be fabricated and one person’s fear can affect others. I have seen where people will not stand up against the fabrication for fear there could be retribution back on them. Our oldest emotion, shame or the fear of being kicked out of the “tribe,” begins to override our decision-making and we no longer aspire to the higher emotions and qualities of being human. We drop to our lower brain functions, which is not much more advanced than being a reptile. I have seen this happen within a federal bureaucracy. It happened to me.

The experience that I went through in that federal agency has been very difficult for me to talk about, let alone write about. What occurred just seems unbelievable. There was no ill-intention on my part. All I can say was that the person in charge was afraid of my personal power. He wasn’t even able or willing to consider how to turn that power to his advantage, as I offered.

That period of my life was very painful and humiliating. However, through the incredible painful experiences, I have found great joy. I am in Israel tonight because I have been willing to forge through the pain of abusive power. I still don’t have all the answers for what completely happened. I still am baffled. However, I am also very grateful.

My best thinking about power, so far, is that it is about having control. Having control, I believe, is a reaction to the fear of losing control. In other words, I see abusive power as fear-based. Fear is an automatic reaction from our lower brain. Unfortunately, I see much of our nation being managed by fear-based individuals.

Consequently, the best we can do when we are afraid is to compromise. Compromise brings out a sense of loss in individuals. Compromise behaviors lead to mediocrity, at best. We have many, many important things to make decisions about in our nation and world today. Unfortunately, we are governed by people who are making decisions from the lower brain, not the higher brain.

I have experienced significant situations where the fear was managed, and the humans involved focused on their higher brain functions. When that occurred, remarkable, and some say, impossible, things occurred. One example was with a large government that I worked with where we passed a budget unanimously while dropping the budget significantly, reaching the agreement months early, without losing jobs, cutting salaries, and reducing important programs.

Basically, I helped these people move from focusing on their fears to, instead, focusing on the hopes. The fears are bound to happen – it’s automatic! We are “hard-wired” to focus on fears first. This is where survival of the fittest comes from, which is flight or fight. However, I believe we can neutralize these fears by acknowledging the fears, then moving our thoughts to our hopes, which is a higher brain activity.

This philosophy will be part of the work that I hope to introduce in Palestine during this trip, at a small scale. I also hope to build capacity, much like what I was able to do in Mali, West Africa several years ago, so the local people are empowered with the knowledge of managing fears and moving toward hopes. When this happens, this work can potentially spread. I am not afraid of containing the knowledge that I know. The more people that understand this work and act on it, the more hope I have for the future of our world, and for my children.

I am sitting in Dulles airport, at the wrong gate with my computer plugged into the wall, getting a full charge before the stretch over the Atlantic. I am anxious to get to the right gate. However, I feel like it’s important to do an entry in my blog today, since I let friends know that I will be writing here, as best as I can.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been watching the “worst possible outcomes” come and go through my mind, of the work in Palestine. What if I am not liked as an American? What if I am detained or kicked out? What if I am hurt? Of course, all my loved ones are saying I hope you are okay, which makes me worry even more. Funny how that works? I have appreciated all of our refocus on how well this trip will go. Especially in my own mind.

I find that I that my mind now drifts more to past successes that include elements of conflict issues that I hear that I will be facing on the West Bank. I have had a lot of successes over the years, and the words “Trust the Process!” reasonate through my mind. This will be a good trip, and will be successful in what ever means that are intended to yield success. I am ready for the journey.

Time to go to the right gate!

How would a natural resource science develop if it weren¹t able to experience and observe the natural environment?  Not very well!  This science is called Range Management.  This discipline was formed during the 1930¹s, with the advent of the Dust Bowl.  The odd thing is that naturally functioning grassland and savannah ecosystems stopped occurring in the 1870¹s on the Great Plains and 1820¹s in California.  Those are the decades when massive migrations of ungulates and associated predators were eliminated almost to extinction.  Ungulates are animals with multiple stomachs, and capable of breaking down the lignin in grasses.  Lignin provides plants with structure and is difficult to breakdown in arid climates.  Examples of ungulates that can breakdown lignin are American Bison, Tule Elk, Big Horn Sheep, wildebeest, antelope, domestic cattle, and domestic sheep.

The American Bison of the Great Plains and the Tule Elk of the California central region were annihilated and replaced with cattle and sheep that generally remained on pastures in smaller numbers for extended times.  Without the predators, there was no need for these new ungulates to move away from water.  The advent of barb wire exacerbated this situation.  After numerous decades of this kind of animal behavior, range science emerged.  What did they study?  The grasslands of the United States, without the migratory animals!

What were the behaviors of the animals of the pre-ungulate annihilation days?  John Audubon, in his diary, writes that the buffalo along the Missouri River were so numerous that he considered it unsafe for a man to ride through the herd on horseback.  He says that the riparian areas were devastated with the impact of the huge herds, with their hair caught in the brush along the riverbanks.  Today, we wonder why the bosque of the Rio Grande is collapsing ecologically.  The bosque is a Spanish term for the wooded area around streams and rivers of the Southwestern United States.  The collapsing ecologically is visible in the lack of cottonwood regeneration, so there are old trees and no young trees to replace them.  There are significant dying grass plants underneath the cottonwood woodlands and vast areas of bare ground.  One has to ask themselves why are the cottonwoods not regenerating, grasses dying, and areas of bare ground increasing when water is merely two to three feet below the surface, year-round.  Yes, the annual flooding has stopped.  So has the massive migrations of ungulates like antelope, often believed to be in excess of herds of the tens of thousands.  The Russians in the 1700¹s wrote of the hills along central California literally being black with the shimmering herds of Tule elk and deer.  Other explorers in the 1800¹s described the Central Valley of California as having as many numbers of ungulates as the plains of Africa.

The dilemma for modern American range science is that they never had the luxury to study a healthy functioning grass and savannah ecosystem.  Consequently, all there was to study was the impacts of overgrazing caused by ungulates that didn¹t migrate and the effect of rest on lands that pre-historically were subject to massive disturbance, as John Audubon points out.  Unfortunately, other reductionist disciplines such as botany and wildlife biology also didn¹t learn about the impact of migratory ungulates on the grass and savannah lands of the North American continent, so they also misunderstand the needs for a healthy ecosystem.  Instead of learning from the wildebeest and pack hunting predators of Africa, our sciences have tried to impose the current scientific paradigms to the African continent.  The results have been devastating to the landscape and the people.

When will we learn about history, and pre-history, as a species?  The saying goes that if you don¹t learn from history, you will repeat it.  Recommendations continually get made from universities, natural resource government agencies, and environmental communities that lead to the desertification of continents of the earth.  This impact is having massive devastating effects on the ecology and financial resources of communities and nations.  This impact continues to harm people, resulting in poverty, hunger, human migrations away from the rural land to the cities.  Species are disappearing, water tables are dropping, and our sacred soil is washing and blowing away.

Is it possible for modern science to think about how plants, microbes, soils, and animals really developed together for thousands of years?  Is it possible for us to save ourselves by managing these lands the way they evolved so that we can bring water back into the soil, stabilize species diversity, and restore carbon as humus in the soil?  How can we learn this lesson, fast, in time to help save our species?  As Aldo Leopold once noted, the same tools that are destroying our lands, can be the same tools to heal our earth.  The role of the migratory ungulate can become the salvation of two-thirds of the earth’s surface, if fit back into the design of ecological processes.

I recently lost a good friend, an American Indian elder.  He gave me a great gift, the gift of the deepest kind of friendship one could have bestowed upon another.

Over the years, he unselfishly welcomed my family into his cultural and spiritual world.  He cared deeply about my two sons, always welcoming them.  Later in life, as time separated us all around the globe and we would call each other on the phone, he would always ask about their well being.

I remember my friend as being cheerful.  Life wasn’t easy for him, yet he always seemed to find a way to make light of the silly experiences of life.  One time, when we were visiting him in the hospital for a tooth extraction, he told of his aunt who had had a hip replacement with plastic parts.  He told us that she had gotten too close to a wall radiator heater and the hip replacement melted.  With his dry sense of humor, the mother of my children completely fell for the story, and stepped away from the wall radiator heater.

Another time, my friend was giving a traditional meal for a group that I had asked him to teach about traditional ways.  The food was delicious.  I remember an Extension agent going up and congratulating him about the wonderful meal.  The agent asked what was the delicious meat and how was it prepared.  My friend, in his dry sense of humor, said it was elk that had been “road kill,” picked up from the side of the highway.  The look of horror, and hope, on the Extension agent’s face, wanting to believe this wasn’t true, was worth a life time of experiences.

He paid me a great respect when I parted my employment with a tribe that had given me the confidence that societies can be better than the lowest common denominator.  He MCed the ceremony paid to my honor in his spiritual center, the longhouse.

Years later, when his wife of many years passed, he asked me to speak for the men when we were beside her grave during her memorial.  At the Salmon Feast at Celilo Falls, again he asked me to speak to the people.  And following his recent wedding at a longhouse, he again asked me to speak to the guests who were assembled to honor his great day.

These were great honors that he paid to me.  He had an unrelenting sense of trust and respect for me.  I understand that gift and am humbled by this demonstration of connection.

My friend had a dream, which involved me.  He saw the work that had happened at the tribe where I worked earlier in life that had achieved such great accomplishments for humanity.  His dream was for me to share this gift with his people, at his Nation.

It was in the pursuit of honoring that dream that I called and learned of his passing in September.  I was not able to attend the ceremonies for his passing.  I was able to find his gravesite in the mountains of his childhood and pay homage.  I left the gift of my leather African keychain on his grave.  He once gave me a similar American Indian keychain.

I miss my friend this morning.  I deeply feel the loss of a true human being.  You see, my friend was as Indian as Indian could be.  I am of mixed European heritage.  And yet, this man always treated me as a human being, with the deepest respect and love.

My friend has this dream of the way life could be different.  My hope and desire is that after this year of mourning, I am able to honor his dream of making a difference.

In honor of a great man…

Building Wealth in Local Communities:
A Program for Change

Goebel & Associates specializes in facilitating solutions to community problems through consensus building, sustainability planning, and scarcity management using a number of proven diagnostic techniques and action processes. Our approach involves developing a holistic community vision and using a decision-making process that emphasizes financial planning for the triple bottom-line (people, profit, planet).

What’s Building Wealth in Local Communities: A Program for Change (BWLC) and why should I care?  BWLC is a community-based process for attaining short- and long-term sources of revenue and employment by identifying local resources, engaging local initiative and talent, and designing a locally endorsed and sponsored vision of community quality of life. The process is a response to the crisis experienced by communities and individuals throughout the United States who have lost vast amounts of wealth, and to the struggles of local governments to balance budgets while meeting local needs and obligations.

What can it do for me, my town, my company?  This process can rebuild wealth for individuals, businesses, communities, and governments. In my experience, individuals and organizations have made tremendous change happen using this process.  One owner’s four ranches increased their net by $2 million per year.  A government at a large Indian reservation doubled land treatments while cutting costs by $1 million annually.  A national forest attained its goals by 126%.  A local watershed council was able to restore its financial condition with an investment of a three-day workshop.  A county in West Texas increased tax revenues through successful businesses by 27%.  Another county in Eastern Oregon had a 93% “new business” success rate over 5 years.  These are just some of the results.

What problem is it solving?  The BWLC process removes the roadblocks to success by addressing the limiting beliefs that prevent movement toward building wealth and provides tools that allow people to learn new ways to solve complex issues.  These issues involve the social, economic, and ecological needs and values of individuals and communities.

What does the process involve? The following six steps are a comprehensive process for building wealth throughout an entire community – from change for individuals, to business and organizations, and local governments.  While all six steps are optimal, communities may choose to start with one or two processes, then add as needed.

Of course, these processes can best be mastered and implemented with the assistance of a trained community facilitator. This is because too many paradigm and belief shifts must occur in order for individuals and communities to replace current belief systems and methods of doing business with processes that yield sustainability and produce enduring success.  It is extremely difficult – if not impossible – for these kinds of “paradigm shifts” to originate from within a community seeking change.

The following steps are recommended for cultivating community wealth and fostering sustainability.

1)    Develop three elements of community vision – quality of life; means to support that way of life; and means to sustain that way of life.

2)    Introduce and adapt a process that evaluates whether actions are sustainable from a social, economic, and ecological perspective simultaneously.

3)    Incorporate the principles of cultivating community wealth

a.    Plug the leaks of community wealth
b.    Shore up existing businesses
c.    Create new local businesses
d.    Recruit new outside businesses that are consistent with the community vision

4)    Institute processes that allow community members with passions to successfully enter entrepreneurial opportunities, through a network of passionate people who fulfill the three legs of a successful business: product / service, financial management, and marketing.  This process needs to tap into the diverse areas of expertise of the community; should not initiate potential businesses or motivate potential entrepreneurs; and be a free and confidential business service.  This selective identification and mobilization of skill-and-passion sets is one of the processes used to accomplish principles 2 & 3 above.

5)    Adopt a financial management process that ensures the triple bottom line; people, profit, and planet.  This approach will lead to economically and ecologically sustaining means to achieve individual family, business, organizational, governmental, and community-wide visions.

6)    Of critical importance, the recognition that unresolved community conflicts carry a very high price tag, AND the commitment to changing those limiting beliefs that prevent movement toward the community vision.

What happens if you only use 3 or 4 of the steps?  It has been our experience over the course of over two decades and three continents that optimal results are attained by following all six steps. We recognize, however, that it is not always feasible or possible to do the entire program. We can assess which of the six steps are most crucial to the successful outcome of a particular set of problems and design a scenario that will bring about the desired changes. Follow-up assessment and review are always an option.

How easy is it to implement?  Again, some changes will occur just by attending a workshop.  Others will require more and continuing investment of time and energy into learning and practicing the processes that are being taught.  Another way of answering this question is to consider your attitude to the current situation.  How satisfied are you with the present state of events? If the answer is “very satisfied,” then you can just go on doing what you’ve been doing, and this is easy.  If, however, you are not satisfied or you are not attaining your desired outcomes, you will have to do something different that will bring the desired successful situation.  Doing something different is usually not easy, as it requires forming new habits and patterns.  However, the long-term results of this hard work are extremely rewarding.

How quick are the results?  Results will materialize on several levels at various intervals, depending on the degree of commitment to learning and to adopting new beliefs and tools. Some results will be instantaneous and visible immediately after the workshop, due to changes in limiting beliefs.  Other results will take disciplined work over time and will include learning and practicing new methods that will create desirable outcomes in the long run. The methods have a proven track record of success in producing both short- and long-term outcomes.

Is it cost effective?  If you are satisfied with your current results, keep doing what you have been doing.  If you need to do something different, it will take an investment of effort, time, and money.

How do I get started?  You can start by talking with Jeff Goebel, Goebel & Associates, about what your relationship is in your community (personal business enhancement; organizational or governmental enhancement; or overall community wellbeing), and what your desired outcomes are.  We will develop a strategy what will begin in the most effective means to meet your desired outcomes.

Beyond Conflict to Consensus—
Addressing the Social ‘Weak Link’

by Jeff Goebel

While overseeing the Texas and Hawaii ranching operations for a large family corporation, I encountered a broad range of challenges, some more interesting and resistant to change than others. The thorniest involved three ranch managers who were unwilling to consider holistic decision-making. Their distrust infected the union employees under their supervision, so that the initial stages of the project consumed valuable months in struggle and negotiations before we could turn to doing the job I had been hired to do. Eventually, we did manage to achieve some striking results by using the Holistic Management decision-making framework, but, once I left, the management slipped back into old patterns of doing business.

This was not an isolated case. Checking with my colleagues in the field, I found them grappling with the same frustratingly long start up period, and the same shockingly frequent “recidivism” once consultants had delivered their services in complex organizational settings.

My holistic expertise had run into a snag: the “weak link” and, in particular, the human element as the weak link. We had achieved much during the three years. We had effectively stopped superficial erosion after storms, so that the ocean around the extensive Hawaiian property was no longer red with soil runoff. We made significant cuts in costs of production and actually doubled revenues. Using biological processes, we reduced pests and we increased productive, more valuable, “higher” successional species. We also improved relations among management, owners, employees, and neighbors, shifting them to a respectful footing.

Even with this impressive list of successes, however, I was convinced that much more could have been done—and that our successes could have been better anchored in the past and the future. On the one hand, in the process of transitioning from the “old” way of doing business to the new, we lost a number of key players. This, I realized, translated into a loss of historical memory, critical in “reading” and diagnosing current conditions. We also lost the valuable experience of old hands, who often had a storehouse of skills, practical wisdom, and traditional lore acquired through generations of tilling and grazing and foresting a particular segment of land. On the other hand, although our new holistic protocols delivered concrete, positive results, these did not systemically graft into existing attitudes, prejudices, and the powerful force of “human inertia.” One consequence of this was that the gains we had achieved were not secured for the long run for complex organizational settings.

Finally, because it lacked a specific protocol for anticipating the “human variable” of distrust of innovation, fear of outsiders, and attachment to territoriality (interest in maintaining the existing power hierarchy among the players), the holistic process required a disproportionate amount of time and energy be invested in building trust, and inculcating accountability once my direct participation ended. The painful and disappointing experiences of those years set me on a search for a more effective set of tools. Could I come up with a set of tools and protocols that would reduce the start up process to a matter of days, and that would simultaneously “lock into place” the successful behaviors and outcomes for significant extents of time – decades rather than years? Could these skills be replicated by the members of the groups and communities working independently of the consultant? Could they be taught to newcomers into the system?

Integrating Holistic Decision Making
I turned first to the work of Don and Betty Green. The Greens, family business consultants, had been affiliated with the Center for Holistic Management in the early days of its existence and had explored many of its conflict resolution strategies. They opened my eyes to the potential productivity of non-conventional protocols.  I embarked on an ambitious research program to learn about both traditional and scientific methods, on the premise that what is new that is good is always, in some way, also old. My anthropological studies spanned native Hawaiian Hoo’ponopono, Native American intra- and inter-tribal protocols; traditional African approaches to reconciliation and conflict; and Aboriginal intercultural dispute resolution. Among contemporary, Western models, I explored the work and experience of the very best theoreticians, and sought out formal training.

As my theoretical knowledge grew, I took advantage of every consulting project to apply, test, and refine my protocols. My most productive experiences included work in northern California with Frances Moore Lappe and in north central Washington State, with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. At the Colville Reservation, I was given the authority and scope to fully integrate holistic decision-making into the tribal government, which comprised 250 programs and a budget of $55 million. In the course of my first year with the Tribes, I trained 200 people in holistic decision-making. However, as far as Holistic Management was concerned, we were making little headway. The community was consumed with talk, with endless discussions that seemed to only augment anxiety and demoralize, demonstrating a reluctance to embrace systematic problem solving. There was positive interest in holistic solutions, but a resistance to take action.

Creating Commitment
It happened that just about that time, in 1993, I traveled to a workshop in Burns, Oregon, with Bob Chadwick, an old family friend, who had made his reputation as a specialist in conflict resolution. Bob was meeting with a group of ranchers, government employees, and environmentalists, who were poised for conflict. Instead of the confrontational atmosphere I had come to expect in such multi-agenda groups, Bob had created what seemed a remarkably “happy” and respectful rapport among the participants. Yet, oddly enough, nothing concrete seemed to come of the session. When Bob asked my opinion of the process, I remember suggesting he try adopting a more holistic decision-making model. He agreed that I might be right, and we left it at that.

Back at the Colville Reservation, however, I just could not put Bob’s process aside. I decided to invite him to help me resolve an ugly conflict over clear-cutting that was building up between the elders and the foresters. The unresolved question of whether or not to remove all the trees from the multiple sites was paralyzing timber sales, shrinking revenues, and threatening jobs. The session was marked by genuine and deep sharing of feelings, thoughts, and perceptions. The foresters expressed pride in filling up logging trucks and seeing them moving timber to the mills to create jobs that supported the community. The elders, on the other hand, decried the abuse wreaked on “Mother Earth” and compared the loggers’ projects to “raping their mother.”

The session, like the Burns workshop, concluded on a note of solid respect and the participants were deeply satisfied. But once again, no concrete actions had taken place and I again thought to myself, “What a waste of time and opportunity.”

On the other hand, I had a deep trust in Bob, so that I did not hesitate when, two months later, he had me bring together the elders, foresters, biologists, and the logger on a gravel road next to a proposed clear-cut. We walked the forest and came back to a circle of folding chairs set up on the road to talk about how we felt about the future outcome of the forest and what we could learn from the experience we had just had to help us be successful.

To my utter astonishment, after listening to the foresters and the elders, the logger said, “I would be fine with cutting the forest to meet the silvicultural prescription and leave five to seven big pumpkin pine trees for the benefit of the elders.” That’s all it took! The result was a consensus of agreement with behaviors that worked for everyone!

Immediately, the timber sales stalemate ended and a solution was put in place that met the needs of all parties. The three-day workshop, which in my view, had ended inconclusively, turned out to have been the pivot point, the dealmaker, in shifting the participants. In the interim between the harmonious, respectful listening and talking that had gone on in the workshop, and the meeting in the forest, the participants had processed the lessons they had learned. The results of this shift were dramatically manifested in the meeting in the forest. All the parties in the conflict had witnessed the powerful change: shift happens!

Moreover, from this moment on, the entire community of diverse interests and backgrounds manifested a unanimous “consensual” commitment into the process and the work. Holistic decision-making took a strong hold at the Tribes. By the end of another year, we had succeeded in doubling land treatment while voluntarily cutting the budget in the Natural Resource Department. It turned out that we actually did not need all that money to do a better job! When the Tribal Council heard this, they asked if I could apply the same approach to the entire Tribal government. Six months later, we significantly reduced the tribal budget without losing any jobs, passing the budget three months early with 100% agreement at the Department and Council levels. This vote of confidence soon took on a concrete reality in the land, the forests, the water, the natural resources, and the cultural and material wellbeing of the Tribes.

Concrete Results
This “experiment” proved to me that the combination of holistic decision-making and consensus building tools allowed us to move rapidly, confidently, and respectfully toward the Tribe’s holistic goal that had been developed using the consensus process and had involved over 700 tribal members. The Tribe continues to move toward their “living holisticgoal,” to this day. The rigor of practicing the formal holistic decision-making through the testing guidelines has long been dropped. Even though power struggles periodically surfaced within the leadership of the group and the original training team was dismantled, a practice of self-government that combined traditional values with the new protocols remained in place. The changes which the original members had implemented – including preservation of three native languages; Washington state accreditation of elders as certified teachers; acquisition of over 100,000 acres of new tribal lands; adoption of international legislation in U.S. environmental law to enforce pollution controls in Canadian factories—all these changes were part of the living reality of the Tribes and served as daily reinforcements for the validity and efficacy of the methods that had been adopted nearly two decades earlier.

Since that time, I have refined my combination of tools to accomplish enduring, seemingly impossible, outcomes. In a West African project, I helped villagers significantly increase food production with their own resources following a workshop that asked them to address the question, “How to increase food production 50 percent without Western technology?”

In another context, I was able to help a lagging national forest end the year attaining 126 percent of the annual objectives. The key component in my success is addressing the social and psychological weak links through an array of exercises in respectful listening; diagnostic tools for identifying, mapping, and defusing unresolved and often repressed conflict; and activities centering on expressing fears that paralyze action.

I use a Five-Module Paradigm for the Consensus Process. These modules include: an introduction to conflict resolution; managing change; overcoming scarcity; harmonizing diversity; and mediating power. With a diverse group, I often use this approach to help the participants develop a consensual holisticgoal, and to generate the motivation to take action to overcome obstacles in achieving their holisticgoal. I have incorporated elements of the consensus building process into the introduction to Holistic Management (change issues), financial planning process (scarcity issues), and policy analysis (power issues).

I have taught the full series of five three-day workshops numerous times. My own observations of results and the feedback of participants, have confirmed that the process is best learned through experience and that it is highly transferable. A learning manual is available for each independent module. I have found this approach to be the most effective and efficient method for overcoming a variety of social “weak links” — including unresolved conflicts, lack of committed goal, scarcity issues, fear of transition, power imbalances and fear of losing control, or lack of knowledge.

Using the new beliefs and behaviors that are identified, defined, and designed to be responsive to the specific issues, the specific context, and the specific strengths, weaknesses, fears, and aspirations of the participants, the individuals, groups, and communities with whom I have worked have found their way to make conflict an opportunity for productive, harmonious, and sustained growth.

Jeff Goebel of Goebel and Associates, the trainer of the Five-Module Paradigm for the Consensus Process, is a facilitator offering training and consulting services nationally and internationally, and can be contacted at goebel@aboutlistening.com or 541/610-7084. For more information, see his website at www.aboutlistening.com