Conflict Management

Conflict Management

Why You Might Need A Family Council

When to Consider a Family Council for Your Family Enterprise Families hoping to achieve a lasting legacy and to have the greatest impact through multiple generations can benefit from a family council designed for their unique family’s needs. When properly developed, family councils can help families stay connected, aligned, and informed. They help families crystallize a vision and work toward realizing it, together. By establishing agreements and processes to aid in group decision making, family councils protect families from conflict, guide them through disputes over what’s fair, and help them navigate transitions. Well-designed family councils can also direct [...]

PODCAST: The Difficult Conversations are the Most Important

Manufacturing Matters - Episode 11 Listen to what the experts shared about managing conflict in a family business versus a traditional organizational structure. Are there Best Practices? How do multi-generational businesses function differently from one another? And what is the "Family Factor?" You will definitely have a few 'Ah Ha' moments. Brought to you by Simsbury Bank Martin Geitz: Martin Geitz: Difficult Conversations with UConn Family Business Program June 26, 2019 Welcome everyone to this, our sixth Simsbury Bank, UConn School of Business Family Business Program event. Thank you all very much for coming [...]

PODCAST: Blair Trippe – How Can You Best Manage Conflict in Your Family?

WEALTH OF WISDOM PODCAST - EPISODE 11 Conflict is a normal part of family life. But it can be difficult to talk about and to manage, especially when significant wealth or a family business is involved. Blair Trippe is a counselor who has years of experience working with families in conflict. In this podcast Blair defines the different types of conflict, shares strategies for dealing with different forms of conflict, and talks about measuring the “family factor” needed to help families weather the usual slings and arrows that fortune sends their way. Man: Welcome [...]

The Rewards and Challenges of Working for a Family Business

Doug Baumoel’s Story Based on an interview and article with Cornell University’s Smith Family Business Initiative Working for your family’s business can be a very rewarding experience, especially if it functions well. When it doesn’t, the experience can be extremely challenging– and even destructive. “When it works, it is an opportunity to create a valuable family legacy and for families to stay connected for generations,” says Doug Baumoel, founder and principal of Continuity Family Business Consulting. “A connected, extended family with significant resources can produce extraordinary opportunities for individuals and have a significant impact on society.” Working in a family business, [...]

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 [...]

  • Family Business Conflict-It isnt always about fighting

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 [...]

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