Common Causes of Family Business Conflict & What to Do About Them.
Family Business Mediation Video No 35: Discipline (lack of)
By Jon Kenfield. Solutionist.
• Discipline: (a) Internal = self-control and self-regulation; (b) External = system of controls + enforcement measures + consequences for non-compliance.
• Lack of discipline = lack of accountability. Unfairness of the playroom.
• Extreme situations, threats that threaten the family and the business.
• The concept of discipline is often ignored or dismissed in a mature family context, being seen as something that only applies to children but, as family conflict experts, we constantly encounter and deal with the results of poor family discipline that’s been transferred into a family business context.
• In essence, internal and external discipline are designed to promote and ensure good and appropriate behaviours in relevant environments.
Obviously, this means different things in family and business contexts, but a person with good self-discipline can usually perform acceptably in almost any environment.
• Personality differences mean that:
o Some family members stick by the rules, while others don’t, conflict.
o Some family members are self-disciplined in the absence of rules, while others are not, conflict.
• When Parents provide unequal / unbalanced support for different children, conflict.
Solution:
• Discuss and agree behavioural expectations and rules, as a family. Include enforcement measures and consequences.
• Use an experienced adviser to facilitate the process if this is foreign to the family. They can reference what other families and family businesses do to help “normalise” the discussion.
• Transfer outcomes into the business, using different language to create formal business policies.