Family+Business is Complex

“What doesn’t get talked out, gets acted out.”

Services for Family Enterprises

We are intimately acquainted with family business; the conflict, disappointment, hurt, despair, excitement, joy, and love. We know from our hearts how hard it is for families to work through business challenges when personal family hurts are festering. As a family business, we have lived this and worked through it. With training in business and the positive psychology of Transactional Analysis, we are both family therapists and business consultants rolled into one.

We facilitate family meetings, family business retreats, life changing conversations.

The family business has the complexity of organizations, with the added complexity of a family system. What happens within the family, will naturally impact what happens within the business. When adult children get involved in the business, sibling rivalry doesn’t go away – although wanting to be grown-up about things means the rivalry might be covered in civility but festers until it affects mental and physical wellbeing, or it affects the business operations and it’s future.

Many family systems are shiny on the outside, but underneath the facade family members can feel oppressed, competitive, devalued, and unappreciated. Families are complex and members may not be aware of how worried they feel about messing up, disappointing the family or afraid to share their uncertainties for fear of being perceived as unsuitable. Successful families often value a competitive mindset over a cooperative one. How does a family business repeatedly switch mindsets from competitive to foster growth yet cooperative with each other. External competitiveness is essential but is not productive when the competition is between family members. This impacts the family’s capacity to care for each other, think clearly about options and make decisions without consensus. Our Family Business Services facilitates important business meetings , family meetings, creates family retreat experiences, and have therapeutic skills to help hurting families members have healing conversations to recover from historical hurts and find many moments of joy and satisfaction while also creating a successful company that thrives.

The Change Institute is often engaged with as a result of doing strategic planning but now the team is stuck in some way and needs to work through the natural conflict that emerges in healthy teams and healthy families. We encourage family members to participate in our Leadership from the Inside Out program that helps them learn the concepts and develop the skills over a year long process of learning with a peer group of other executives and leaders.

TEC Canada Peer Advisory Groups

Leaders of family businesses benefit from advisory support from their peers. At The Change Institute, we also run a TEC Canada CEO/President Peer Advisory Group. This is an opportunity for leaders to have a community of peers to engage in problem-solving and get support with strategic and personal decision-making. TEC Members also benefit from executive coaching once a month as part of the process.