Feb 25 2021 4:00PM

Facilitator's Guide to Conducting Effective Family Meetings

In the normal course of family business, family members and their trusted advisors often find it difficult to decipher what is going on when tensions rise in various meetings. Discussions can go off track and emotions run high without a clear understanding of what needs are being expressed. Well-planned and regularly scheduled family meetings provide a space for family members to discuss the family-related aspects of being in business together such as: the impact of family dynamics on business performance; family member employment opportunities; generational succession; and family wellbeing in the context of growing the business. Without a place to have these conversations, family issues “leak” into other meetings and can undermine important ownership and management discussions, to everyone’s frustration. Trusted advisors can help their clients understand the value of investing in creating effective family meetings and help to facilitate them.

In this 45-60 minute workshop, advisors will:
● Explore the appropriate place and purpose of family meetings in the context of
family business governance.
● Learn how to help their clients prepare for and run an effective family meeting.
● Increase their ability to identify what makes family meetings effective and what
throws them off course.
● Understand how trust among family members plays an essential role in
successful family meetings and what they can do to help trust grow.
● Discuss a list of valuable family meeting topics they might facilitate.
● Learn the “Road Tested Rules” of creating effective family meetings developed
by the presenters over many years facilitating family meetings in enterprises
ranging from mom-and-pop shops to the top of the Forbes 400 and everything in
between.