Family business succession and planning for the long haul future is a never-ending process that what was recounted during your first conversation with your partner or another member of the family can happen weeks even months before you share what was discussed with your advisers.
If you do not write down what's said, in an order that makes correct recall possible your communications will be like those described by Lewis Carroll, “I know you believe you understand what you're thinking That I expounded, but I am really not sure you realize that what you heard isn't what I meant” in Alice in Wonderland.
Writing down what people say when they assert it is important, because at the end what you are trying to achieve and create is a kind of “relationship agreement” that spells out how you and they all see the future together. Perhaps what comes out of these family business succession planning conversations is a collection of relationship agreements on simple issues as well as your mutual ideas for the gigantic ones.
Whenever two or more individuals are involved in a long-term interdependent relationship there is likely to be conflict. And these conflicts frequently sidetrack answering the key question of what is succession planning and why is it urgent if the business is to be successful over the long run.
In a family business these arguments are usually more acute because they are never just about business – they are always colored with something personal, everyone has a history and a future that gets piled into whatever transgression of the code is observed by the others.
Succession and planning for the business’s future is an excellent time to unearth these sore spots and create agreements on how they should be handled in days to come. This is the time when everyone will have their chance to set the record right and supply their input into how things should be in days to come.
Writing it all down is important. Each party to the process , and that ought to be each one, will come away feeling that their point of strives has been heard. Nothing makes us feel better than having our say and understanding that it has been noted for significant consideration!
Your advisers will be the ones who create the legal documents and contracts, that's not your job and nothing any of you write down should be considered “binding” on any person.
The answers to the questions do however provide a framework of understanding around which the documents your advisers will be making. And these notes will “ping” your advisors about matters they might never have worked up on their lonesome.
To make certain what is discussed and afterwards written down you will need the questions. Non-judgmental, fact and feeling looking for questions engineered to get everybody talking about the same important things overtly and honestly. Questions for everyone that search for “What’s important?”, “What’s the situation today?”, “What do you/I / we want it to be?”, and “What’s possible for us to achieve?”
The solutions to these questions, perhaps asked by the planning coordinator (an insider whose role is to keep the method moving) will be written down and shared with your company's advisory team of executives.
Often, based on the experiences of Lewis Carroll above, the planning coordinator will return to ask, “How did you mean that exactly?”for the clarification your advisors need in order to do their job more effectively.
When you put down the agreements, incrementally step by step by step, as you move thru the method of family business succession you aren't only adding bricks to the wall that will make your family’s future relationships better and more productive – you are providing the precise info creative advisors can use to help to make your image of the future a fact.
As is clear, family business succession planning is a method, one that does not have to be complex unless you make it so.
The truth is that you and only you have the ability to make the succession and planning calls mandatory, you alone have the authority to make the decisions required and you alone are responsible for the result of your succession and planning process, whether they are the results of thoughts, talks, and negotiations or by luck or setback.
Most successful companies put off management succession planning till it's too late. They fail to appreciate the way in which the process focuses their energies and those of everyone around you in a standard centered direction. When they are focused on the goal they are more likely to take the actions important to take them where they really wish to be. The ideal succession planning process answers the age old question regarding what is succession planning more clearly than any paid professional confidant.
