Jon Kenfield, Author at The Solutionist Group

Family Boards – Strategic Leadership, Governance, Supervision and Risk Management

A Company Board is a legally constituted Board of Directors under the Corporations Act 2001. Its role may be anything from: (a) being there because, at law, you have to have one in a company (compliance requirement), to: (b) being there to support and supervise business operations (governance). A Family Board is a term used […]

Family Alignment – Building Consensus to Enjoy a Shared Future

In some ways, obtaining family alignment is like pulling teeth …. into alignment. It takes time, effort, due process and some (or lots) of pain. But the end result makes everything worthwhile – all the “bits” look better, and work better, over the long term. Family alignment should be a primary goal for any family […]

Dispute Resolution – Deconstruction to avoid Destruction

From many victims’ perspectives, disputes look huge, complicated and unmanageable, with no obvious resolution trajectory. Think: “how can I eat this elephant?” From an outsider’s perspective, the same dispute may look very different. Without the strong emotions, it’s easier to perform a rational analysis that calmly evaluates complexity, urgency and solution entry points. If the […]

Conflict Resolution – Deconstruction to avoid Destruction

From many victims’ perspectives, conflicts look huge, complicated and unmanageable, with no obvious resolution trajectory. Think: “how can I eat this elephant?” From an outsider’s perspective, the same conflict may look very different. Without the strong emotions, it’s easier to perform a rational analysis that calmly evaluates complexity, urgency and solution entry points. If the […]

Conflict Management – Cut the Costs of Conflict

All conflict is damaging and costly, and its costs are not purely monetary. Agile Conflict Management helps to cut conflict costs. There are 3 phases in Agile Conflict Management: Conflict Prevention – requires appropriate use of Strategies, Structures, Systems and Skills: Strategies – having a plan that enables you to identify risks early so they […]

Business Succession Planning – It’s not “if”, it’s “when?”

One of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard about business succession planning came from Giuseppe (not his real name) who declared that he didn’t need to worry about succession planning for his business because he wasn’t planning to retire any time soon. Giuseppe was 79 years old! He had four sons working in his […]

Arbitrator – Like having Solomon on Steroids for Commercial Disputes

Arbitration is an excellent private dispute resolution option for individuals and businesses in dispute. The parties agree to appoint an independent person – the Arbitrator (who should be an expert in the subject matter of the dispute) to make a binding decision on the issues in dispute. The Arbitrator gathers information, using documents and/or in […]

Alternative Dispute Resolution – The ADR Story

Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) describes any process used to settle or resolve disputes that is not court-based litigation (ie: it’s an “alternative”). Alternative Dispute Resolution has a long history however, ADR was not widely adopted in Australia until the early 1990s – when politicians and judges acknowledged that our court systems had become so slow, […]

Advisory Boards – The “Great Leap Forward” for Business Families

Establishing an Advisory Board (or “Advisory Committee”) is one of the easiest, quickest, cheapest and most effective measures any family business can take to improve the quality of its thinking, planning, problem solving and general decision-making. The concept is simple: an Advisory Board is an identifiable body, established by a family to help it make […]

Business Family Alignment – the Family Plan

Throughout the Western world, less than 5% of all family businesses survive the third generation curse: “from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations”. The 5% that do make it through often proceed for many generations – in clear evidence that they’ve worked out and applied something really important to their family about sustainability […]