Services
Mediation
Family
Business Mediation
Most businesses have conflicts
occasionally. All families do. So it’s no surprise that family
businesses sometimes encounter conflicts among the family members.
Typically
these conflicts are emotionally charged, and often there is no clear
right way to resolve them. Family members may have different points of
view about what is best for the business. Sometimes the conflict is
over balancing what’s best for the business against what’s best for the
family members collectively and what’s best for each individual family
member. Sometimes the conflicts are as much about relationships as
about substantive business issues. In those cases, even if one family
member is the “boss” and can impose a solution, the conflicts can
linger.
In some businesses, the family owners
have the communication and negotiation skills to resolve the conflicts
in a way that works for everyone. But those skills aren’t common, and
they can be difficult to apply in a situation where feelings are strong
and deep.
So the unresolved conflicts continue
or grow, draining energy and attention from the task of running the
business, potentially creating a toxic atmosphere of mistrust and hostility.
Sometimes they result in a formal dispute with threatened or actual
litigation. At that point, significant damage has usually been done to
the relationships among the family owners, and perhaps to the business
itself. If litigation proceeds, the damage may be irreparable.
Mediation
offers a way to keep this from happening. A skilled neutral mediator,
with nothing invested in the situation and no ties to the parties, can
help resolve the conflicts before the fabric of the business is
damaged. This kind of early-intervention mediation is different from
commercial mediation of litigated cases, and involves business
problem-solving skills more than litigation skills, and sensitivity to
relationships more than facility in predicting lawsuit outcomes.
But
the mediator doesn’t impose a resolution on the parties. No one
understands a family-owned business better than the family owners.
Mediation is designed to help them find the best resolution themselves.