For four years, the Washington state government, US federal government, and 17 Native American tribes had failed to reach agreement on a 10-year resource management plan. Without a long-term deal, annual negotiations were a huge drain on time, money, and attention on other pressing issues. Our advisor was approached to mediate. 

Assembling and leading a team of mediators, our advisor led a five-month process of plenary negotiations involving 175 participants convened over video conferencing. Creative meeting design helped build foundations of trust between parties, after which mediation shifted to in-depth negotiations on 12 key issues away from the main table. As those agreements came in, the plenary inched toward a new 10-year package. 

Five years after the collapse of the original resource management plan, and after less than a year of mediation from our advisor, the parties put a new 10-year agreement in place. Moreover, the mediation process laid the foundations for stronger relationships into the future.