Conflict Management
ON DEMAND WEBINAR: Deconstructing Conflict: Understanding Family Business, Shared Wealth and Power
Continuity Partners Doug Baumoel and Blair Trippe recently presented a webinar in partnership with Trust and Estates magazine, and their parent WealthManagement.com. The webinar provides a comprehensive overview of Continuity's unique developmental perspective and methodology for managing conflict in family business. Doug and Blair illustrate some of the dynamics of family systems and stakeholder relationships as well as their groundbreaking Conflict Equation - all included in their recently published book, Deconstructing Conflict: Understanding Family Business, Shared Wealth and Power. The webinar also features a Q&A with the audience.
Five Ways to Improve Family Business Communication
We all know communication has a powerful impact on both personal and business relationships. That’s one reason why many people identify poor communication as what needs to be fixed for the family business and relationships to thrive. The complex family business system sets a series of traps for even the skilled communicator. In family business communication, it's easy for things to go awry. But just trying to fix communication is usually not the answer. Thinking that improving communication alone will solve family business conflict is usually an unrealistic oversimplification. Solving family business conflict requires a more comprehensive solution, one that [...]
Understanding Conflict in Families of Wealth
By Blair Trippe Working Through Differences Everyone fights over what matters to them. When unrelated people fight, they can choose to walk away and end relationships. When family members fight, it’s not that easy. It’s more difficult to cut ties, since family relationships often continue even if affinity doesn’t. Plus, when family members fight, they often are fighting over deeper, more personal concerns than just what issues lie at the core of their disagreement. They are also trying to figure out how they will continue as family in the future. Given that conflict is likely unavoidable, how can you think through [...]
Should We Stay Together as a Family Enterprise or Separate?
How to Figure Out if Sharing Assets Still Makes Sense By Doug Baumoel Defining Family In the back of your mind you may be asking this question: Should we continue managing our wealth, business, or philanthropy together at this point, or should we go our separate ways? Many members of families that share assets must face this question at some point, although far too often they wait until a conflict or crisis hits, when they are then forced to face this. A key challenge with legacy assets is that the group sharing those assets rarely chose to do so with [...]
The Hidden Perils—and Potential— of Shared Family-Owned Real Estate
The Hidden Perils—and Potential— of Shared Family-Owned Real Estate By Paul Faxon and Blair Trippe Managing Unique Challenges for Future Success Real estate can be the driver of a wonderful family business, but it can also be a slow-motion train wreck for families that neglect to manage their shared enterprise and their relationships well. Many enterprising families have at least some real estate within their portfolio, often because opportunities to buy real estate evolved as part of the family’s operating company over generations. Many families whose real estate ownership began as extensions of other family business activity don’t identify as [...]
It Isn’t Always Fighting: Family Business Conflict
Can you recognize family business conflict? Few people are eager to admit their family has conflict. Especially now that social media reminds us daily that our friends have perfectly harmonious families (!), it can feel like a failing to admit that there are tensions in your family…or worse. But learning to recognize family business conflict and look it in the eye can have enormous impact, especially for stakeholders in family business or family that shares significant assets. For enterprising families, conflict can be even more pernicious—and even more damaging if left unaddressed. To Succeed and Sustain Relationships: Managing Conflict is [...]
Collaborative Law: Resolving Disputes, Without Burning Bridges
Litigation is especially risky in a family business with more than just business interests at stake. A Collaborative Law process can get you the help you need, without the delays, uncertainty, costs, publicity, limited remedies, and relationship damage that a court (or arbitration) proceeding usually entail.
Harmonize Through Conflict in Family Business
“We don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note. Only notes that are different can harmonize. The same is true with people.” Steve Goodier All enterprising families experience conflict, and how to handle conflict is a top concern for family businesses. Conflict is NORMAL. It is a natural characteristic of the family, evolving when people’s roles change and grow, overlap, clash, or are misunderstood. Staying strong as a family and a family business requires flexibility and constant renegotiation of roles, as well as an acceptance that dealing with conflict is just business as usual. Learning how to effectively manage [...]
Positive Prenup: 5 Topics to Protect Your Partnership
Getting a couple to talk about divorce when they are just embarking on marriage can be a tough sell to someone planning a wedding. For couples entering a partnership with comparable assets, a prenuptial agreement. aka prenup, is rarely contentious. But when there is wealth disparity, prenuptial agreements can be seen as a requirement by one party and as a threat to the other. In this case, creating the prenup can prove critical to the success of the marriage—not just for the future conflicts it prevents, but also for the conversations it starts. Prenups Protect Couples from Conflict The truth [...]
Getting a Grip on Conflict, pt. 2: Managing Systemic Conflict
In Part I: Getting a Grip on Conflict, we looked at why conflict in family enterprise is often so extreme and intractable-- because conflict is inherent in family enterprise, with all of its overlapping systems (ownership, business, family, and governance.) In a family business in particular, it is critical to understand and manage systemic conflict for business success and to protect ongoing relationships. Managing Systemic Conflict How to Manage Conflict in Family Enterprise There are three principal approaches to managing conflict: 1. Bargaining 2. Force and 3. Development. Once the sources of conflict have been identified and broken down into [...]
