“When you fail to plan you are planning to fail”
Benjamin Franklin.
Plan:
a set of decisions about things to be done in the future to achieve an identified goal.
Family Plan:
what the family wants to achieve for its members, and for the family as a whole, over at least the next 25 years. It’s about the family.
Imagine a row boat with 8 rowers, and a cox: to reach their destination efficiently, or at all, these 8 individuals need a plan. It starts with a goal (to row 5 kms upriver to the jetty on Saturday morning); they commit to the goal (we’ll all turn up to do our bit!); and they need to work together to achieve their goal (each of us will pull and lift our oars, in synch with each other, so we all get to our destination). Taken together, they have a Plan. The alternative will be untidy at best, or wet, at worst!
To operate efficiently, all complex systems (objects with multiple interacting parts) – such as a family, or a business – need a plan that can be communicated to their members, employees and other stakeholders, so everyone knows where they’re going; why they’re going there; how they’re going to get there; when they’re going to get there; and what each of them is expected to contribute to the process. Armed with this knowledge, people can work out what’s expected of them and what’s in it for them – a big motivator.
All conscious actions require: (1) intellectual recognition (initial conception) and (2) emotional (electro-chemical) response (physical action – the doing).
A summary statement of intellectual recognition is found in The Family Plan: goals, timelines, resources, budgets.
Required actions are in the emotional responses captured and directed by the Action Plan that forms part of the detailed support documentation for The Family Plan. It contains the actual tasks the family needs to get done, to achieve Plan objectives.
In common with many small businesses, most families don’t have an identifiable, workable Family Plan. Individuals may have their own ideas of where they hope / expect some things to go, and there may be a collection of actual or perceived promises that people are relying upon, but because they’re not widely shared, and are therefore largely unknown, they can’t be used to guide the family’s collective aspirations, efforts or resources. Of course, if the family keeps on going long enough, it’s bound to end up somewhere!
Lack of a plan is a recipe for trouble when a business, or significant financial interests are involved – especially when some family members (or their spouses), are in “interesting” circumstances, or have strongly different feelings about what should be done with those resources, and who should be controlling them.
To help avoid problems, and potential conflicts, Family Plans should be developed inclusively, preferably in a dedicated workshop environment, using considered responses to previously circulated questionnaires.
The Family Plan should capture big picture, aspirational goals for the whole family, and identify major milestones along the way, for at least 25 years ahead. Once goals and timeframes have been agreed, specific tasks need to be scoped and allocated. Names (projects and people), numbers (revenues, costs and profit targets), key objectives and timings should be allocated to required tasks.
This helps to: (1) Facilitate a serious reality check on the family’s Vision – the names, numbers and timings have to stack up; and (2) It provides the family with a road map for its journey towards long term success.
Reviewing the Family Plan on a regular (annual) basis provides an excellent reason for holding family gatherings and for ongoing, constructive family communications on topics that should be of interest to everyone. In that way, the Family Plan contributes to building the family’s legacy.
To discuss developing a Family Plan, please call, or contact: The Solutionist Group.