Message from the Vice President

Message from

the Vice President

This time of year always triggers our collective social ritual to wish everyone a Happy New Year and to also wish everyone a great Christmas holidays. It is also the time when we as individuals reflect on our past year and look to see if there are any lessons we have learnt, so we can apply them to the coming year.

It is a little more complicated when it comes to applying self-reflection to an entity like the Tahltan Central Government. Our Department Directors will share the operational success and our President will share our political success. The complication arises because the TCG has multiple organizational entities: our community governments; many organizational departments; the economic arm of the TCG and external entities like the Province of British Columbia and mining companies, just to name a few. All these entities operate independently but we all need to work together to integrate our structures to meet the rising expectations of our multiple stakeholders.

To assist, Peter Senge says “The building of shared vision lacks a critical underpinning if practiced without systems thinking”, because it fails to show people how they are responsible for the current reality.

Ken Edzerza

Vice President, Tahltan Central Government

Table 2.1 Meeting the Challenges of Change Through Systems Thinking

The Challenge Benefits of a Systems Thinking Approach Characteristics of a Conventional Approach

Motivation:

Why should we change?

Collaboration: Why should we work together?

Focus:

What should we do?

Learning:

Why bother? Show responsibility for current reality

Demonstrate how people’s current ways of interacting undermines both their individual and their collective performance Tell people they should

Use leverage to change the few things that change everything else Tackle many issues independently and simultaneously: attack symptoms

Recognize that our actions matter, and that we need to learn from the consequences of our actions Assume that others are at fault and must learn

Appeal to desire or fear

Forging partnerships is not without challenges but it can be done by learning to think systemically. This can be done by developing shared understanding and working towards common goals so we can achieve meaningful results. It is important to state that all the entities I have mentioned above form a system. The challenge is to design that system so that it serves our people and that we can understand how it works.

We all have a role to play. Our operational team has set up several ways for our people to make their concerns known, so take the opportunity. The world has been going through a challenge with COVID and we have all had to adapt. That is what TCG, and our operational team have done. All the engagement opportunities are virtual, so join the conversation.