Family Business Problem Workouts
Engagement. When a family business recognises that it cannot resolve its problems by itself we are engaged to work with key family and non-family personnel through a series of confidential, individual and joint meetings. Our first task is to identify and separate significant issues into 3 distinct categories:
- Business
- Family/Relationships
- Personal
The Family Business Problem Workout Process
- Gather background information about the people, the family, the business and the issues that are causing problems. This requires a series of one-on-one interviews.
- Identify specific interests and needs, both recognised (apparent) and unrecognised (hidden). This is developed through the initial interviews and through subsequent interviews with couples.
- Analyse and evaluate the information and impressions obtained in (1) and (2).
- 4Facilitate the development of a long term vision for the business, the family and family members.
- Develop a comprehensive Family Business Problem Workout Plan and a timetable for same with the family.
- Counsel, coach and prepare individuals and groups for meetings and negotiations. Involve lawyers, tax accountants, financial advisers, coaches, therapists and other support professionals, if and when required.
- Conduct and manage one, some or many mediation (negotiation and problem solving) meetings. Focus first on solving urgent business problems, then move on to significant family, relationship and personal issues. These latter may be handled and resolved contemporaneously, through parallel processes, using external professionals (eg: specialist family business psychologists, counsellors, coaches, mentors etc).
- Work with family members - starting with individuals, couples or small family groups and expand outwards into larger family groups. Develop options and alternatives to resolve problems in all 3 categories.
- Help family members to visualise themselves living in the most attractive options developed in (8). Evaluate other options as benchmarks and alternatives.
- Draw acceptable options together to form workable solutions (often involving far-reaching, long-term changes).
- Generate a written Family Agreement, in plain English. This is a flexible, possibly legally binding document, designed to record and commit the family to the decisions they make to resolve their problem. The Agreement must contain a clear go-forward plan.
Note that any agreed outcome is a good outcome for our purposes. Provided the Agreement is legally valid, it only needs to be measured against the family's, and the businesses', specific needs and interests (ie: whatever it takes to resolve the problem, according to the family members' personal values). External, objective measures of acceptability (eg: other peoples' norms) are virtually irrelevant. - Oversee the implementation of the family's undertakings per the Agreement.
We have found this to be an essential, ongoing role that is rarely required with non-family business agreements. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for a family to go through all the pain of developing an Agreement, only to then ignore it and return to their original, dysfunctional dynamics. Truly, the habits of several lifetimes cannot always be changed with a few meetings and soothing words: "you can't talk your way out of something you've spent your whole life behaving yourself into!". The only alternative is to appoint someone independent to stiffen their resolve and hold all family members accountable to the commitments they made, individually and collectively, in the Agreement.
Benefits of Solutioneering in Family Business Problem Solving
Quite simply, if you take yourself, your family and your family business seriously we believe there is no more competent or effective problem solving service available anywhere in the world than the Solutioneering service we've just described above.
However, if even this doesn't sound creative enough for your very special family - take a look at ArtiFac.