Note the photo. Four of the meerkats are looking to the future. The two on the right are fighting. A fight that will blow over, or a fight that is decay to the family business? When do you ignore it, and when do you have that conversation that should have happened a long time ago? 

If you are part of a family business, you’re in good company. There are over four million family firms in the UK, and most of them micro firms, i.e. without employees. They rely on a family getting along and seeing eye-to-eye on the business strategies for the future.

When circumstances change and you are faced with a structural change to your family business, the unique dynamics presents challenges. You all wear more than one hat: shareholder, board member, employee, boss, relative, parent, child, spouse. What a cauldron of emotional and financial complexities. You can’t solve a family business dispute with a pinch of salt.

Your family values, traditions and aspirations are likely a huge part of what makes your business tick. It’s a proud legacy to be continued. When your family business needs to undergo changes there’s a far higher risk for disputes, loss to business value and fears of unsustainability with a new or changed top-tier structure. What makes your family business so successful can also be its vulnerability. None of us welcome change as much as we might often like to think we do, especially when we’re re-acting to it, and not driving it. 

If there’s discord, it’s a very delicate arena. Here's some of the main ways a super-productive conversation (whether mediation, conflict coaching, or mentoring) can help your family business forge forward: 

• Succession planning – let’s aim for a seamless and harmonious transition of leadership from one generation to the next.
• Defining clear new roles after the death or incapacity of the chief so you can rebuild without stressing the foundations too much.
• Focus on growth and innovation – expansion, investment, marketing, budget planning, asset acquisition and sales… Phew! The opportunities are better when you explore how to adapt to changing circumstances and market conditions.
• An agreement, or a plan, about the value of business assets if there’s to be a transfer, buy-out or sale or the exit of a key player and shareholder.
• A collective understanding about how profits should be distributed, who has responsibility for what, and what roles each will play and who answers to whom on what decisions. 
• An understanding of the hidden costs of conflict – management distraction, lack of productivity, stagnation due to disagreement on the way forward – that helps you become unstuck for the greater good.

Independent Mediation stands far more chance of preserving family relationships in a family business than a court ever can when a dispute is simmering, brewing, or at boiling point. A court can’t facilitate a discussion that is rooted in anxiety between the generations of one stepping down, the other doing things differently. It can’t encourage dialogue and mutual understanding. It has no ability to maintain family bonds and relationships, however much it might want to. It cannot pave the way for truly transformative future strategies. 

Honouring the history. Avoiding stagnation. Ensuring continuity. Preserving discretion. That’s what family business mediation, coaching and mentoring is all about. Its holistic, not adversarial. 

You can save oodles of time and money by settling important issues and concerns as early as possible. You can prevent disharmony escalating and learn to understand each other a little better than before. Businesses are built by people. The best businesses understand their people.

Mediation, mentoring and coaching can equip you with valuable communication and conflict resolution skills which can only benefit your business and even your home life. How’s that for work-life balance? 

Flexible and private, mediation offers minimum disruption to the running of the business. It also offers substantial opportunity to explore other ways of doing business. 

Here more than anywhere else in the mediation sphere you might just come out of the dispute stronger for it. I love watching the ‘lightbulb’ moments when I’m working with clients on family businesses. It’s a spine tingler. 

It’s often difficult for family members to resolve family conflict without a neutral (like me) just because they are so close to it. Calling time on the business can sometimes seem easier than fighting for it. This breaks my heart just a little, so for you it’s far worse. 

I can help you with a neutral environment to voice concerns constructively and focus on the asset you all care about dearly: the family business. whatever your differences, you all agree that you don’t want to jeopardise something that has been built with huge care, dedication and love. Businesses are called the founder’s ‘baby’ for very good reasons. You don’t throw it out with the bathwater. 

Let’s brainstorm and get the best result for all so your business can work for you and continue to enhance your lives.