Conflict Resolution & Transformative Change

The forces of change are calling us to adapt our systems and grow our partnerships. How will you meet the call? Conflicts, difficult conversations, distrust, and complex context all get in the way. Zephyr Collaboration will help you build your change management strategy and bridges to solutions.

Sea Level Rise in California:

The impending profound impacts of sea level rise on coastal communities and public beaches require massive coordination and flexibility at multiple scales. Zephyr Collaboration supports a working group of the California Coastal Commission, the California State Association of Counties, and the League of California Cities to address sea level rise in coastal California, specifically relating to Local Coastal Program (LCP) policy development, adaptation planning, and project decision making.

Tahoe Keys Aquatic Invasive Weeds Control Project:

Zephyr Collaboration is helping parties with widely divergent viewpoints find unprecedented control strategies to prevent the spread of invasive weeds into the greater ecosystem of Lake Tahoe. A private property owners association has struggled for decades to manage aquatic invasive weeds in 172 acres of lagoons adjacent to Lake Tahoe, posing an increasing threat to the clarity and ecological balance of this federally designated Outstanding National Resource Water. The private homeowners are under a government enforcement order to control the infestation. Zephyr Collaboration designed and facilitated stakeholder and public engagement processes to work with regulatory agencies, scientists, key stakeholders, and the property owners’ association to identify alternatives for study as possible pathways forward. Regulatory agencies unanimously approved first of its kind tests to determine feasible control solutions for a long-term management plan. See www.tahoekeysweeds.org for more information.

Ok Tedi Mine Environmental Review:

Zephyr Collaboration is committed to bringing into any process the voices of those in the community who are most directly affected, and that increasingly includes original indigenous populations and cultures. Zephyr’s Principal, Caelan McGee, was embedded in a team that designed and mediated a two-year negotiation among mine operators, the Papua New Guinea government, and 110 tribal communities to agree on environmental and compensatory requirements for mining operations to continue. Affected communities gained a billion-dollar package of resources and investment and upgraded environmental monitoring programs.

COLLABORATION & NETWORK BUILDING

Policy makers and managers today know that to address complex challenges, we need to bring greater and greater collaboration to bear among individuals, across and within organizations, sectors, networks, and differences. Zephyr experts can advise on all stages of complex partnership cultivation and network building.

Intertribal Indigenous Stewardship Project:

More and more we are opening to the need to re-incorporate traditional knowledge and indigenous cultural practices into land and ecosystem conservation. Nowhere is this truer than in decisions for how to manage the growing incidence of catastrophic wildfire. Zephyr Collaboration supported convening and facilitation for a coalition of indigenous land stewards forming an organization to share knowledge and expand the use of fire as a landscape management tool inCalifornia. For more information, refer to this article and radio program.

Central Valley Landscape Conservation Project:

Cooperative Landscape Conservation is a process that achieves common goals and priorities across a network of partners to ensure sustainable ecosystems throughout a broad landscape. On behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Zephyr Collaboration linked the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative with climate adaptation planning for avian, fish, and terrestrial species of significance in California’s Central Valley. Zephyr’s facilitation and planning is enhancing collaboration and communication among more than 90 stakeholders representing agencies, organizations, businesses, landowners, and Tribes. Outcomes include climate-smart conservation objectives, vulnerability assessments, adaptation strategies and action plans, and an online toolbox and outreach plan for partners’ implementation. More information is available at: http://climate.calcommons.org/cvlcp.

Tahoe Region Environmental Improvement Program Network Oversight:

There are growing movements regionally, nationally, and globally to advance cross-border collaborative conservation to sustain nature, culture, economy, and community. Zephy team has been on the front line of network leadership practice for almost two decades providing strategic design, oversight, and collaborative leadership. One instance is the bi-state, cross-boundary network of 100+ organizations implementing diverse programs and projects for the environmental and socio-economic health, improvement, and restoration of the Tahoe Region. The successful network has leveraged billions in cross-sector conservation and socio-economic investment for the bi-state Lake Tahoe Region. See www.ltinfo.org for more information. Let us help you weave the network you want for the impact you need.

Facilitation and Public Engagement

Any process between people is dynamic. Today's volatility and uncertainty benefits from effective process design, inclusive public engagement, and focused outreach. Let us help you lead groups from breakdown to breakthrough. Zephyr expert facilitation can create safe space for exploration, uncover hidden order in chaos, make way for creativity, enable collaboration and inclusion, and help you align diverse perspectives toward a larger purpose.

California Census 2020 Statewide Readiness Assessment, Outreach and Communications Strategy:

Once a decade, the California Governors Office completes a census count to inform state policy and budget decisions. Zephyr Collaboration consultants worked with the California Complete Count Committee to design and facilitate a robust strategic plan for statewide stakeholder engagement that included convening 25 readiness assessment meetings with regional and community leaders, culminating in a Statewide Outreach and Communications Strategy to prepare communities across California to reach the hard to count.

Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act Pre-Regulation Stakeholder Meetings:

There is nothing more difficult than filling in the systemic structure for a new and undeveloped policy arena. Zephyr Collaboration strategic process design and facilitation for the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation and Office of Medical Cannabis Safety supported stakeholder education, discussion, and broad public input related to licensing for medical cannabis dispensaries, distributors, manufacturers, testing labs, and transporters. Our public meeting design, planning, facilitation, project management and support of multiple listening sessions elicited a wide array of advice from industry veterans to affected communities needed to inform the newly forming state regulatory framework.

Statewide Advisory Group on Water Efficient Landscape:

Toward the goal of making systemic change in the state’s water management practices, the California Department of Water Resources sought Zephyr Collaboration’s service to convene 400+ interested stakeholders in the landscape industry and public agency sectors for input on landscape water use efficiency and updates to the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO). Zephyr coordinates and facilitates the statewide Advisory Group workshops, virtual “open house” discussions, and the work of eight subcommittees. The Advisory Group has developed a comprehensive Guidebook for Local Agencies on MWELO implementation and recommendations on the 2023 MWELO update.

Polaris Creek and Pomin Park Relocation and Restoration Feasibility Study:

Our identities often strongly connect to our home community and the experiences we collect there. Zephyr Collaboration worked with a local resource conservation district on public outreach and community meetings to determine the feasibility of relocating a popular park so the Polaris Creek wetland complex could be restored. Zephyr designed and facilitated outreach, engagement, and public input to explore relocation options for park infrastructure and services.

Project Management for Complex Policy Questions

Do you need help leading the work of a team to achieve your goals? Let Zephyr help you convene the right people, design the right process, set the right milestones, and achieve the desired outcomes for your project or program.

Local Assistance for California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Program:

After many years facing prolonged drought and growing water management pressures, in 2015, new California legislation set in motion the most sweeping shift in groundwater management policy in the state’s history. On behalf of the California Department of Water Resources, Zephyr Collaboration’s team assisted with organizing and facilitating the formation of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in medium and high priority groundwater basins or sub-basins. Facilitated meetings, workgroups, and consultations with key stakeholders including Tribes and GSA-eligible entities, led to governance agreements and successful education and startup of the state’s groundbreaking new water management policies.

Lake Tahoe Shoreline Development Plan:

The discordant and disconnected interests of the bi-state Tahoe Region had tried unsuccessfully six times over 30 years to develop acceptable private recreation access policies for shoreline development of Lake Tahoe. “Seventh time is a charm.” Zephyr’s team member, through a leadership role at the agency issuing the enforceable policies and regulations, led the convening of a multi- sector, multi-stakeholder collaborative, provided strategic planning, policy assessment, coalition building, conflict management, and successful resolution that enhanced recreational opportunities, protected the environment, and set responsible development limits for the shoreline of Lake Tahoe. When you’re stuck, Zephyr Collaboration can help you get unstuck.

Training AND Coaching: Collaborative Leadership AND Organizational Development and Change

Organizations today need to adapt to increasingly complex challenges with more flexibility, creativity, and agile thinking. Zephyr Collaboration’s team has the experience and knows how to help you transform your organizational culture with new mindsets, skillsets, and behaviors to meet today’s new work demands. We can help you create a learning culture where employees feel confident and curious to solve complex problems in effective team and network environments.

Iraqi National Parliament Women’s Leadership Project:

The Women Leadership Project transferred skills in coalition building and strategic planning to expand and improve leadership by, from, and for women in Iraq. Approximately one third of parliamentarians must be women according to the Iraqi constitution. If women representatives voted as a unified block, they would have the numbers to guide policy nationwide. Unfortunately, most of these positions have been appointed by, and under the control of, the many parties and factions. Zephyr’s Principal, Caelan McGee, and a team of U.S. and Iraqi facilitators brought women leaders together across ethnic, cultural, and geographic divides to form relationships and focus on common goals for women and for Iraq.

California Waterboards’ Facilitation and Stakeholder Engagement Training:

More and more, employees need the tools to lead change from within and manage complex projects. Zephyr Collaboration works with the California Waterboard’s Office of Public Participation to develop and deliver training for Waterboard employees to enhance skills for in person and virtual stakeholder outreach and engagement, stakeholder identification, meeting facilitation, conflict resolution, and more. The agency can now draw on its own pool of trained facilitators, reducing its costs and fostering greater employee development and satisfaction.

Collaborative Leadership Learning Series:

The heart and soul of tackling today’s more complex problems are the competencies to think about the larger context, how the systems we operate in work or not, and how to share leadership and management in increasingly networked environments. Zephyr Collaboration’s team has designed and delivered a unique collaborative leadership learning series spanning individual, team, and organizational development competencies, and systems change fundamentals. Topics include understanding organizational purpose and values, organizational culture creation, personal growth and mastery, strategy and decision making, high performing teams and team learning, relationship and trust building, systems-thinking, systems change practice and process, and collective impact network facilitation. Contact us to assess your needs and make a learning plan for you or your organization.

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Strategic Plan and Organizational Culture Change and Transformation:

Peter Drucker famously noted, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Don’t let your organizational culture get in the way of achieving your mission. Zephyr Collaboration’s team conceived and led the strategic approach to organizational development and culture change that reinvented the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency from a traditional command and control regulatory agency to a solution-oriented, regionally focused, more collaborative network builder dedicated to shared leadership, systems thinking, and partnership building as the pinnacle of its organizational culture and values. We can help you design your approach, methods, and tools to reach your goals for organizational change and transformation.