Legacy and Longevity: Investing in a Family Business Education

Thank you. Welcome everyone and thank you for attending today's webinar. I'm David Shaw the publishing director for family business magazine. I hope that all of you and your families are in good health and that you're looking forward to Spring. Many next-gen family members pursue higher education and often this education helps them in their future roles in the business in the family Enterprise. but family businesses themselves, as we all know are unique and there's also a need for education in the areas of the family side of family business, you know, for example, the Dynamics of working with your parents or your siblings or your cousins, even if you're not in the business itself, Today we're going to be discussing the role of family business specific education and how it contributes to family business longevity. I think you'll enjoy it. Before we get started. I want to go over some quick housekeeping details. We welcome your questions and your comments throughout the session just use the ask a question button that you'll see underneath the video screen. There we go for no more than 60 minutes today and we'll get to as many questions and comments of yours as we can. We'll be forwarding a copy of the slides you see today to all attendees. So joining me today is a really exceptional panel of speakers who will address family business education from a variety of perspectives. First up. We'll be Dennis Jaffe Dennis is an advisor to families about family business governance wealth and philanthropy his research with global multinational family. Enterprises has resulted in a number of books, and his most recent work is focused on lessons from 100-year plus old family businesses. Next up will be Kathleen Hoy Kathleen is principal in the Consulting Services team at MCM. She has had sex extensive experience helping and Advising firms with their growth development and passing that the Enterprise on to the next Generation before her role at MCM. She was a director. It's the director of the family business center at the University of Louisville and director of the Small Business Development Center for North Central, Kentucky. Last but not least. We're joined by Von Scott Vons and entrepreneur who is in the midst of a transition to having a family Enterprise and he has been advising on financial strategic transition and succession needs of family Enterprises and entrepreneurs since 1997. He teaches business Consulting with multiple mbaa programs, and he's also developed a course called family wealth creation and preservation, which is part of the University of Louisville's online graduate certificate program in family business management and Advising. To set the stage today for our discussion. I'm going to turn this over to Dennis Jaffe who's going to discuss the history and importance of family business education Dennis. The stage is yours. Well, thank you. I'm delighted to be here and I'm going to be talking about the experience of the hundred families that I interviewed. I interviewed families from a hundred families that were past the third generation had huge businesses or sometimes they had sold the businesses and they had number of different family Enterprises and they and they went together not just as investors, but as a family and so what I learned from them is that the next generation was Probably their their core focused looking ahead. It wasn't they weren't concerned about the business. The business was doing fine. It was really about how do we create a great family? And how do we keep this going? And the answer was to develop a great Next Generation? So let me you know, just kind of share a couple of things that I learned very briefly and then we can get into you know, more of the kind of so, what what do we do about this? So first of all these families where we're looking at Next Generation as development not as education education is kind of a passive thing and some families say well educating the Next Generation. We're going to teach them about financials and business and that was important but these people had a view of Next Generation as developing whole people and developing whole people means it's about personal growth and personal development. Not just about Developing Concepts and and and adding to learning but really creating what they called great citizens of the future. And so this was emotional learning it was personal learning and and the other thing about it is it wasn't learning for learning sake that they really were responsibilities that went along with the wealth and the business and the different and Enterprises that these families had and they were Preparing People to take responsibility in in the family Enterprise. So there's broader view of what education is and when we say education, I'm only if you really dealing with families, you really have to see it as a broader issue. So the next the first thing that I learned is that that the Next Generation had a number of struggles there were family members who were felt very challenged by the fact that they had this great wealth and this great history in their family and they wanted to live up to it and their challenges were emotional much more than knowledge. It's like, how how do I how do I make how am I worthy of it? What am I expected? What do I have to do? How do I how do I do a good job? What kind of how do I deal? With the with the responsibility, how do I learn to trust people? And so there was a lot of personal issues and struggles and the education programs had to deal with those struggles and and those challenges and they were emotional issues as well as intellectuals issues. Now there was a developmental process that we saw and this is very important because a lot of families they they want very quickly their kids to kind of figure out who they are and what they want to do and what we learned is that with the Next Generation. This was a process that took a lot longer than normal education. One of the things that people somebody said to me is it well in a family business you really can't be an adult until you're in your 30s. So they grow up with the parents script. They grow up around the business. They absorb what they're supposed to do. They live very often in a bubble of privilege. And so it's very hard for them to grow up and the successful people in in the family are able to to kind of Understand that they need to go out and find their own passion and Direction, they go out to schools and other countries they travel they they take jobs outside and this is really a central part of personal development to get out of the place where you're special and your privilege and your your wonderful and everybody wants to know you to do something on your own without the the trappings of of your of your personal wealth. And this is a deeply challenging experience. Then these family members can come back and begin to say well what is the family want now that I've developed some confidence and that's develops of credibility. What is what can I do for the family and at the same time the family is creating governance and letting down and creating a role for the Next Generation. So this is the development process that we see and families have to learn that the first age of development is to let go and to let their children go out and learn and grow and so it's apart from the family, but then they have to come back in the family and do another level of learning. Now just one of the paradoxes that we saw is that the the typically the founding generation they they had a different experience. They had worked they had were self-created business Founders. They had where entrepreneurs they had grown up without money and they had a hard time understanding the needs and the challenges of their children in the in the second and third generation. And so we have a situation where the parents didn't really know about how to teach their children about wealth. They had some very sometimes very inappropriate or not useful ways of seeing it. So the Next Generation sometimes had to create their own education rather than rely on what their parents are for them, even though their parents were very inspiring and and very wonderful. So let's go into and I'm going to say very quickly some of the things we learned about. What was Next Generation development and education. First is that education doesn't begin outside. It begins in the family with dialogue and families want to know and talk about being wealthy. It is a difficult situation. They kids find that they're they're marked in school. Oh he's so and so they have they don't know what the future is that the money is there but is it their money? What can they expect and so families have conversations about Cross-generational conversations about what is this? About? What is what is expected of you? What what is it that you can count on? What do we want you to do and these foundational discussions are really important in families and families generally have a hard time talking about these things, but it's really really essential that they begin their education by talking about well, Next thing is that that people in the Next Generation because there's a lot of resources and they're in a situation where they have wealth and they they can do anything they want. Being in a situation where you can do anything that you want is really difficult. How do you make a choice? What are the criteria? How do you find out what you're good at? How do you develop your skills and stick with it? And so young people in these families have mentoring and opportunities for career development and and personal personal assessment. And this seems to be something that families really want to spend their money on and create a help each person develop themselves. Next thing that these families do is they engage people in the business in the Enterprise in the foundation in all the things that the family does in an active way. They don't some families see how we're having a family meeting and they come out with a big page spreadsheet of financial information and what the family wants is to to learn together and to experience the business. Some of the things that families do is they they offer opportunities for people to observe and to be part of the boards and to learn about their businesses. And this is a developmental step where people begin to feel that there's an active place for them because they can eventually succeed into being on a board being part of the business. They don't have to necessarily work for the family business. And families often large families often create a family University. They have experiential education. They go on trips. They learn together. They have courses they bring in resources, they have discussions and there's a real educational focus in in the family. So to kind of end this is this this is actually a graphic from a family where it shows a funnel of all the different educational opportunities and all the different development things that this family does and this family in particular has a has a full-time family member who is the relationship manager who is responsible for the growth and development of the several hundred family members in this family. So that's what I learned about education from from the Next Generation our families and it's active. It's emotional. It's it's very special because there have very special opportunities and it's not something that you can do instantly and it's something that the whole family is involved in. Well, before we before we go on to Kathleen Dennis, I'd like to just ask a question or two. I mean it's fascinating stuff. First of all, somebody might may have joined a little late because the question was can you post the name and author of the book mentioned? This book is the author is Dennis Jaffe right here and we'll make sure that you get the slides and you'll have contact information on. Thank you for that question. What you talked about some of the outs you sort of the structural best practices, but what kinds of topics are themes? Did you find that hundred year plus families really tried to focus on in their in their endowed education whether it's internal or external. Very very broadly. They were asking the question. What is our we have a credible amount of wealth. What are we going to use it for? What's important? And so some families talked about sustainability and social Enterprise some families talked about financial education and being responsible and and not and and knowing about the different entity they buy and large move beyond having family members employed in the business by the third or fourth generation. So it really they talk about stewardship. So they had Financial topics, but sometimes they had they would go like one family went to China and and spent two two weeks there and then they used their sothropic dollars to in this was this was in the 80s to help China develop and they're just those in early job all kinds of yeah, they were very successful. And so that they're all kinds of what family really finds a way to what they're doing is creating a next generation of people who are productive who are able to do what they want to do who do it well and and who really make a difference in the world and that that's their goal. You mentioned it. You used a you had a phrase where you you said that family businesses often don't see their next Generation as adults until they're in their 30s, right? I think that's it. That's astonishing in some ways. So you've got the you and it's it's understandable but you've got next-gen going to college right and they're coming out 21, maybe. Yeah, maybe they go on and get a masters in business or something in their 25 strikes me. There's this Missing Link Between the mid 20s and the 30s educationally for for the next gen. Well, they don't they don't need to pile up degrees. They need to get some experience and to do get experience where they're not seen as oh, this is a special rich person that we have to be nice to because they're very important. So they go out. They do social service. They travel they they work in schools in Nepal. They They they do projects they work for you know work for a venture capital firms or the developing skills. They start a business they do incredible things so that think about from from like 26 to 30 something. They're developing their own skills and doing something that they can say, this is what I did. I may have come from this family, but I've done something important and now they come back to the family with some credibility and and and some self-esteem about I have something that I can offer and then they offer it. Excellent. Okay. Well, thank you Dennis. I'm going to move now to Kathleen Kathleen. I'm bringing the slides back up here and we'll put you up on top here. But let's talk about what you see that family Business Leaders need to learn based on the development stage where the family firm is Dennis talked about the hundred year plus families that are oftentimes not necessarily in the business. So but they are part of the Enterprise, but I assume we've got different needs all throughout. Yeah, so I'm going to talk about, you know, having come from more of an academic background as a director of a family business center at a university to now. You know full-time on the ground Consulting with family business clients. There are some themes that I've noticed some some educational needs that family business leaders and emerging laser leaders need and I see it some patterns. I see three basic categories of Developmental needs for family Business Leaders. So the first kind of task that I try to tough and coming family Business Leaders about is their role in this professionalization task. So, you know, when you emerge from the first generation entrepreneurial phase to the second generation sibling stage it really falls on that second generation to formalize the business and build these systems and processes and structures that are going to create that infrastructure and Scaffolding if you will for growth and allow the business to scale. Um to take it out of in some cases what is more of a lifestyle business to a professionally managed business and so really falls on that second to an even third generation family business successor leader to professionalize the business and the tension of comes into play because Founders tend to hate this this dynamic, they don't they're not cut out to be people who are going to build a processes and systems and structures. So there's often attention between the entrepreneurial Notions of the founder and the professionalizing desires of the Next Generation particularly when they go away and they get a formal education and try to bring that learning back. It's such a cultural shift that there can be it's almost a tug of war between the two generations. Um, but this is a critical phase as you go into the second third generation to begin to create a merit-based culture that incorporates outside expertise in the form of perhaps non-family executive leadership or even non-family independent directors on the board. And so you know, what I see is that yes an NBA education traditional MBA and education is helpful in helping these next Generation successors professionalize the business but context is everything you deliver that learning and being able to deliver it in a way that the first generation can accept. Um, this is just another way to sort of look at this trans-these transition points between the first and second and third generation and this emerging need to formalize and professionalize the business, you know, we want to maintain a culture of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, but we certainly want to again professionalize the organization and introduce these elements of structure and accountability which again the structure and the accountability can be a cultural shift and can create attention between sort of the Old Guard and the new guard if you will the other key tension point is between sort of the traditional command and control owner and it's never a one-to-one replacement in a successor. Process right? So you're going from a one-person team to a person leader to now A Team who's going to replace that that leader and the shift to the team Dynamic and team of decision making models is is also quite a shift for for many businesses and it's helpful to know it's coming and to prepare for it rather than fight it. another piece that I see Kind of missing on the ground with a lot of my clients is this notion of legitimization? And what I mean by that is successors understanding what it means to gain legitimacy within the family business system and I like to refer to it as the 3H formula. So a successor needs to lead with the head the heart and the hands in other words. Yes, they need the technical knowledge and expertise the head component, but they also have to win hearts and minds they have to inspire people to want to follow them many times people who are much older than them to follow them and they have to get their hands dirty. And so being able to do all three of those simultaneously and you know something that I find myself saying quite a bit to MBA students who come back to lead their family businesses. It's not enough to be the smartest person in the in the room, right? You have to inspire people to get on that bus with you and you have to know how to legitimize yourself not just be again the smartest the smartest person with the the best ideas. I frequently see, you know an interesting situation where you know, there's two siblings. There's the one that has worked in the business since high school, right? The one with the dirty hands who's done every job in the company has a lot of loyalty towards towards the business and then the other siblings who who Ventures out to get you know, formal education or even corporate experience, but then comes back sort of the prodigal son or daughter and you know, who's the legitimate leader in that context and you know, a lot of times it's up for grabs quite frankly because the one who stayed one with the dirty hands has in many cases legitimized themselves again and and established a loyal following and and Trust primarily with people within the organization. Whereas the person The Sibling that goes away and comes back again might have the best ideas. They might have a really nice suit and everything, but they have to again have that ability to to win hearts and Minds. The other piece that I see where I have to do sort of a lot of on the ground education because there is such a gap. Is this notion of cooperation and I mentioned, you know, this cultural shift from a command and control. Founder leader in the first generation to team-based leadership team-based decision-making processes. And I spend a majority of my time doing training and education on the ground around this notion of cooperation. What does it mean to be a cohesive team? What what are the elements? What are the behaviors that are required for high functioning team? What does it mean to collaborate just basic communication skills like active listening. How to effectuate an apology or make an amends what are the what are the mechanics of that? It's almost like everything I learned in kindergarten, but I have to relearn as an adult engaging in productive conflict and what that looks like teaching people about What productive conflict looks like and why it's absolutely necessary to have healthy levels of conflict on a team in order to arrive at the best decision. And how how do you get buy-in from all affected parties all team members how do you have difficult conversations? How do you directly communicate avoid things like trying Elation which can be very disruptive and team environments. Non-violent communication is another area that I see a lot of need. For training around how do you communicate in a way that does not create defensiveness? That is not divisive. How do you learn about different people's behavioral types as well as your own your own self knowledge? And express empathy within a business context. You know things like cultivating emotional intelligence and asking for feedback being vulnerable. All these things I spend just so much of my time with clients. A helping them learn these Concepts and there's almost a hunger for it was what I see with a lot of my clients. They they know that they really need these skills in order to be effective and they certainly did not learn them and traditional educational context. So This is what I am seeing as a consultant currently so that really just to summarize its. the the tasks of professionalization legitimization and cooperation So Kathleen a question came through and this could be for Vaughan and Dennis to to come in on but when you were showing the the development for entrepreneur and through professionalization, there's there's oftentimes the question about what about the entrepreneurial mentality, especially when it's a big family and it's multiple Generations in how do you transfer that mentality? How do you keep that spark alive? I guess within the family. Yeah, you definitely want to maintain. a culture of innovation and so, you know, you have to kind of professionalize and while still innovating and you know, there's there's various ways to do that. But you know, it's important that the the founder and the owner translate the vision for the organization and that when they leave there's another Visionary that takes their place right that the part if you look at the EOS entrepreneurial operating system when they look at accountability they have Defined roles for a Visionary and integrator and then everyone below them and the Visionary that Visionary role is is you can't just chop off the head of the organization. It has to be replaced by someone deeper in the organization and that can keep that entrepreneurial Spirit Alive for the organization. Dennis did you see anything in the hundred year plus families? Oh, yeah, this is something that the that family businesses have that that other businesses don't have a non-family business has the professionals but professionals are not really innovators and they're not really entrepreneurs and in a family business you have another group who are the people that are the Next Generation and I ask families. Where have the big Innovations come in your family who how have they happen and two thirds of them said the major Innovations and changes in our family came from the Next Generation who went out who got new ideas who worked in other places who brought new ideas. These are things that Professionals in the business are in a position to do and so I think the family businesses are more creative and and more Innovative when they invest in their next generation. Well, yeah, I would just add you know, professionalization doesn't have to mean bureaucracy and I think they're you know often we forget that that really professionalization can be very Dynamic and then the other Trend that I think is really important is is that we've been in the era of Institutions where you know, it seems like we all have to do everything under one roof and what we're seeing more and more is an era where we can actually we'll see more federations. I think where it'll be formal Partnerships loose alliances collaborations, you know different ways that people are gonna are gonna engage in the future but that it really is and ultimately much of innovation is solving really big problems at times even problems that we didn't know we had and so, you know that that's really the spirit that needs to be to be maintained but the professionalism means we can approach it in a much more effective efficient manner often as long as we don't lose the creativity. Thank you Kathleen that that section that you had on cooperation and you know, it's interesting because I'm hearing two things in this session that you know, the next gen isn't seen is really adults until they're 30, but there's a lot of things that we forget from kindergarten that cooperation approach. What kind of educational programs are there that you implement with your clients or with families to try and teach that I I use Patrick lencioni's modality quite a bit the five behaviors of a cohesive team. And it's based on the book The Five dysfunctions of a team. It's a very comprehensive team training type program. It takes like 15 to 17 hours ish. Um, and it's it's very effective. It's very transformative and it actually measures before you start the training the cohesiveness of that team. And then after you take the train you can measure against that Benchmark, so it's data driven as well. And that's that's the one that I have found to be most effective and then I sort of augment that with but you know different types of communication training such as non-violent communication active listening and just whatever's whatever's needed for the particular family. in your your dealings with the Families what what kind of topics are you seeing educational topics aside from the cooperation side here the sort of the fundamentals of communication. What kind of topics are they looking for? What are you seeing that they need? um things again, like having this difficult conversations like how to have a difficult conversation how to really get some objective understanding of the basic behavioral differences between especially siblings, but, you know, just learning how to just one's Personal style to be more with another behavioral type. I spend quite a bit of time doing teaching around that and it really kind of deep personalizes differences between people um so it and then oddly enough things like how to how to apologize you know, what's what's the difference between an effective apology and you and the one that we know I'm sorry. Your feelings got hurt kind of thing. But you know how to repair how to genuinely, you know, make amends that will lead to the opportunity to restore and repair a relationship and move forward. Well, I mean you've hit on sort of the the reason why family business education is different from almost every other kind of education, right? It's it's things like repairing Communications repairing relationships and that leads to that thinking of the holistic approach to a family business. And so I'd like to transition now to Von and Von let's talk a little bit about what you see as the components of that kind of sure. No, thank you very much. It's it is fascinating when we think about the world today and I'm gonna show you some of this through the lens of the course that I created called family wealth creation and preservation, but I'm also going to include some of the structural elements. I think Dennis and Kathleen have done a marvelous job of re-identifying many of the themes that we're all aware of but I'm gonna hope to introduce some additional Concepts that I think will be helpful whether you're looking for a learning program or you're interested in developing your own learning program for your family or as Dennis alluded to the family University or you have one. I think these are things that are gonna be important to think about the first thing that's probably most important to think about is that we're in an ear of unprecedented change and and the interesting thing about that is is that that we have to come to rationalize that and realize that and appreciate that we have seen a significant shift in many ways. I used to have to to argue with people about whether whether change was really upon us or not, but Would argue that we've actually entered the era of the IFA the entrepreneurial family Enterprise where we're entrepreneurial family Enterprises. I believe have a real competitive advantage and and I am one of these entrepreneurs. I'm one of those guys simultaneously but what I see is these these these entrepreneurial family Enterprises really have engaged extended families they work together as well as a family they understand the family of affinity concept and that that you know, we all benefit from working together, but they also appreciate and respect the members of the team and the roles that they play all the capitals are fully engaged both in the family and the Enterprises their agile and strategic and their thoughtful and caring which is which is really a key differentiator. So again the question I often ask is it really different this time? We know the answer that question now we can end that debate but one of the things that's also critical is that we think about you know, as we design any program is why are we doing this, you know with cynic would tell us and this is from from his work for some reason the the proper citations are not showing up. I'll make sure when this gets sent out to everybody you've got you've got the the sided copies but just as cynic would tell us, you know, why is really important. Why are we developing this program? Why is it important to us as a family that we have a holistic program, then we can store that we participate in one and then okay, how are we going to achieve that are we gonna are we gonna look to universities and other resources? Are we going to look to places like, you know family business magazine are we going to try and develop ourselves and then you know, what is it that we really want to accomplish out of all this. So these questions are all really really important is as we think about it. Simultaneously one of the big mistakes that I see people make is they get very granular early in terms of what is it that we need to learn about and they think about very specific topics. I'm a big believer that we have to think much more thematically, especially as the rate of change continues to accelerate. So I'm going to focus on the middle three topics here and we're in the interest of time. We're going to go through them very quickly. Obviously, there's a lot more of this in the course that I teach but but probably the biggest shift from from a from a globalization perspective is just the fact that the global middle class is transitioning in ways that we've never seen In human history, so essentially if we roll back the clock to 2009 we had 54% of the world's middle class. So 18% were in North America 36% were in Europe fast forward to 2030. And again, I'm sorry. I don't know why these are not translating well, but 65% of the world's population is actually going to reside in Asia or will result the middle class will reside in Asia over 90% of the population will reside in areas outside of the developed West. So the developed West is going to continue to play a smaller and smaller role in a global macroeconomic perspect from a Global macroeconomic Perspective, but still a very important role the big difference is we're used to West influencing East and I think we have to be prepared for for the fact that the East is definitely going to influence West and it's really again much of this is just driven by the Numbers. The fact of the matter is is that that in 2009 there were about a billion members of the middle class in all of the West that's all of North America and all of Europe the rest of the world only had 847 million members of the middle class fast forward six years. We gained about 28 million and and unfortunately the rest of the world actually nearly doubled or more than doubled but but actually increased More than we had in terms of middle class. So we added almost a billion members of the middle class in all parts of the rest of the world that includes Latin America South America Africa in the Middle East. So so what are we what are we look what are we looking for in the next, you know few years. Well, we're going to continue to see limited growth in the west. And the rest of the world is going to continue to have explosive growth as it relates to the global middle class. So we're gonna we're gonna add in the 15 year period where we only add roughly 28 million and all the West the rest of the World's Gonna add, you know, over two billion members of the middle class. I mean just seismic changes in terms of of what's Happening. So that's obviously globalization. That's one thing that's really important to think about technology is another and this slide is not working. Well, so essentially if you look there is normally an X and A Y axis on this so so the essentially what we're seeing is the rate of change, you know going from the bottom to the top and going across the bottom is actually time. So human adaptability over time is actually fairly linear the reality is that technology in the way that's evolved is is evolving. Is like a hockey stick because essentially thanks to Moore's Law of computing power doubles every two years and it has since the 1970s. So so realistically we're already at a place where human adaptability can't keep up with technology in the way that it evolves. I think we could argue that it's the same is true economically socially and politically right now. It's incredibly challenging. So when Friedman asked Astro Teller who's a CEO of Google actually Drew this for him. He said, what should we do? Tell her simply said the solution is we've got to learn fast faster and governed smarter. So again, I think you know in a lot of ways this is this is really important not only for our family as we think about the things that we need to learn but also for our Enterprises and and the things that we want to do for the future. One of the again one of the sea changes that we're seeing and especially as we're thinking about learning is is we can't as much rely as we used to on the rearview mirror, you know, if you think about the analogy of driving a car there's a reason that the windshield is much bigger than the rearview mirror. Imagine just trying to drive and reverse it's a dangerous and be you know, it's we're not sure we're gonna get to our destination. But especially when we think about all the changes that are evolving and the way the world is changing in front of us. It's very difficult. So, you know as the road moves faster and faster in front of us we have to be prepared for that. So interestingly enough. There is a concept called action learning. So as we have to learn faster, there's actually a precedent and a premise behind it gentleman named regrevin's developed this back in the 20s and 30s. I won't bore you with all the specifics, but essentially what he developed out of that was a formula that says basically learning is the sum of a small piece. So, you know learning is a combination of both program knowledge and questioning Insight. So what we want to see is is that we are doing the learning like we're talking about about these various topics and these very, you know, this this these various themes, you know as we think about it as it relates to families we often think about next Generation development family Dynamic shareholder education. Those kinds of things there's basic program knowledge around that that we should learn but we need to make sure more importantly that we maintain a questioning Insight. Are we asking the right questions and do we continue to ask the right questions of others in ourselves as Kathleen alluded to in a respectful way so that it's positively disruptive not negatively disrupted to the system. So action learning then ironically when when revans was around, you know, if if you could just keep up, you know, you know learn at a rate that was equal to the rate of change you were doing okay today. Unfortunately, I think we can we can all bet that the reality is is that we have to learn at a rate that's greater than or equal to the rate of change and no one of us can do this alone. So we have to work together as families. We really have to make sure that we're thinking about how do we how can we learn better as a family and how can we ensure that? Our teams are learning better? It's a critical function for all of us. One of the things that's important and and any program that you develop or any program that you participate in they should understand that there are also different learning styles. And if you haven't thought about the learning styles as it pertains a programs you participate in or programs that you might develop you really need to to give that some thought because essentially there are three basic learning styles or others, but basically, you know, you've got visual Learners people who learn from Reading auditory Learners people who tend to prefer to hear things to understand better and then there are kinesthetic Learners people who want to do things, you know, as was described earlier, I think dentist describe, you know, you know people actually visiting businesses that's kinesthetic learning you can you can read about a business or you can watch a video about a business but actually walking around and seeing how it works is much more engaging for many people and all of us have a preference around these and it's just, you know, it's a combination that are important but it's important that everybody every learning program takes these into consideration. The other thing you want to think about is as you're developing a learning program is are you going to are you going to set up a program that's prepared to play checkers? Or are we going to really think about how can we actually turn a program into playing chess? You know, and the reality is is that I think we can all agree especially considering that other families and other parts of the world are really upping their chess game. Probably not a good idea. If we really develop things, you know at a Checkers level. So what's the difference between Checkers and chess? Well, it's you know quite a broad difference in terms of you know, we need to think about even in learning programs. We need to have a broad field of vision. We need to have a dynamic response to things that are changing and how do we update and keep content that's current and relevant. How are we proactive in the way that we think about what we're what we're developing and then what are the multi-prong strategies that we need to think about? You know, it's not a simple one for one kind of a proposition. We often have situations where we need to make sure that we're thinking about multiple things simultaneously that's that's the world that we live in. In addition aside from the from the basics and having you know, the different learning styles that we understand. There is a process or a a proper. A structure that you should use around developing programs where you think about Bloom's taxonomy now typically blooms taxonomy is represented in in the form of a pyramid. Obviously. I like the checkers and chess theme a bit more. So so essentially blooms would say and again any program you develop or any program that you participate in they should use this as a foundational element for building the program. There are some basic things that you want to learn or understand. And again, I'm sorry, these are washed out. I'm not sure why these slides look this way. But so it's, you know, remember and understand there's some base levels of knowledge that we need to to participate in and then once once we get past that we can actually apply and analyze things as as we've learned this base level of information and then in an even higher level where we really start playing chess versus chess is we really start to evaluate and then create, you know different ways that we can apply what we're learning. So so, you know, we can create new programs. We can create new things that we need to think. About or to talk about so again, you want to make sure whatever program you participate in or whatever program you develop it has some of these fundamental elements and that it sticks to some really important macro themes because I believe really the question is is how do we ensure that families learn change? And again, this is completely washed out. It's a very good slide if you'll see when you get them. They're much better than they look right now. Let's see here. So beyond that, you know, I do think any program again sticking with the the Thematic approach is that we need to make sure that as we think about the different concepts, you know, whether it's family Dynamics Next Generation development, you know shareholder education, you know, improving performance within the business. We also need to think about these themes which which I have developed over time and they are and you've heard them described in different ways from trust. How do we maintain trust? How do we ensure that trust is maintained within the family. How do we ensure the trust between the leaders of our our organizations or the leaders of our image Enterprises and our family is maintained. What do we do to repair trust whenever it's been strained or stressed? How do we how do we have better relationships within one another both among family members between the family and the Enterprise and and among the family in between the family and the Enterprise? How are we spending our time? Are we making a good use of it? Even when we're bringing people into educate them, you know are we really using our time as effectively as it possibly could be used. And then last but not least, you know responsibility. And again, you heard it described you know in in responsibility is is dual and meaning it's both. How do we how do we ensure that? We're financially responsible and how do we ensure that? We're socially responsible, you know, as we consider all of all of these different topics. So again, I would submit to you, you know, and again these are important strategically they're important as we think about our our family relationships with one another. You know, I would challenge you to find four themes that are more core to to just about anything that we need to be thinking about and if educational programming doesn't relate to one of these you really need to question why it's in the program at all. So that being said Thanks for for listening and I got to give a special thanks to Jay Hughes who's a friend and Mentor who helped me develop all this content. Thanks for the time. Well, thank you Von. That's that's really interesting. You know question that came to mind and it also came from an audience member at the beginning you talked about engaging all capitals. Um, can you tell us kind of a story of how that might work? Is there an example? Yeah. I mean, I thought, you know, obviously in in the in the field there are five common, you know forms of battle human intellectual spiritual Social Capital right when we read about it. Their number of books are number of articles that have been written about them. But frankly, I think we need to translate those terms into terms that are more approachable. Like trust relationships responsibility and time because we we do need to think about you know, what those can do because when I started doing a lot of this work and started developing this content, that's really where I started and and I found that as we talked about human capital. Hey, I don't really like the connotation of that. You know, it's it's really more about you know, how do we how do we ensure that people are as productive as they can be how do we have productive humans? And you know, how do we have productive family members, you know, that's an example of having, you know, all the capitals engaged but most importantly as families. We want to make sure that we're talking about them in ways that that are really meaningful to the family and and that are approachable to the family. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. That was that was great the action learning concept. How do you translate that how let's talk about translation into a family business educational program what what are some of the elements that a family should be looking for for their educational programs that that fits that Yes, that's a great great question. And and essentially what's important about that is is that if you notice there was a very small p in terms of the program knowledge. So when we think about the program knowledge, that's what do we need to know about family Dynamics. What do we need to know about next Generation development? What do we need to know about shareholder education? What do we need to know about you know, you know interacting with you with with, you know, Enterprise leaders that is an important component, but the bigger and more important component is ensuring that we continue to ask better questions about all of that and ensure that we make Shield. We ensure that we have, you know, better questions that we're asking and that we're formulating questions in a way that are productive and and meaningful to the family. a great A great example of action learning that that I heard about in my research is a family that they they asked for volunteers in the Next Generation and they create a council and every year the council talks to the board talks to the business and they come up with a a challenge that they want to meet and then the family members develop a new idea develop an approach, you know do a project together and they bring that to the company and they say here is our next Generation gift to you. This is a new initiative or a new project or social responsibility, you know kind of effort and and some great Innovations came out of the young family members getting together. I would I would also like to mention we haven't so far but the power of Storytelling. In a family Enterprise and a family business context and especially when you're talking about younger generations and even some it really relates to some adult learning theory Concepts as well. But you know with some of the families I work with when they identify their core values. I really encourage them to come up with some family stories that highlight those values so Ingenuity or hard work or integrity and tell a story about how a family member demonstrated those values in action one that they could tell to younger generations and just to cultivate sort of a treasure Trove of family stories. If you will that can be passed on that highlight those those key Concepts and values. Kathleen I'm glad you mentioned that there were actually several questions on you know, the educational value of the families history and story a dentist in your 100 Year Families how I would assume the family Story the family history as well understood generationally. They had all kinds of active ways of doing that and now in the age of both, you know, social media the younger like the grandchildren can interview the grandparents and get their stories and and stories doesn't mean just telling stories. It means videos. It means spending time together. It means you know, really learning together and families are finding incredible ways to do this. So this was one of the very first questions that came in from the audience, but I think it's really relevant. So do many of these families that you see do they ever send their kids to formal family business programs at traditional universities, you know, IE get a major in family business or a concentration in or is this a post-graduate kind of education or is it both? It it's both. I mean all of the families they say well, let's learn what other families have done and where they do it. They go to family business magazine programs like transitions. They go to certificate programs. They join local networks that a family is pursuing learning. They're going out and finding out what other families are doing and actively talking to them every family that that's successful I think is doing that. You know, I do think more recently. I mean there have been a few places where there's more formalized education at the undergrad level or The Graduate level like our programs are graduate level program and and it really is is one that we're you know, just launching now, but it's it really was born out of the need for you know, we want MBA education MBA level education, but as Kathleen was was alluding to the challenges. There's so many more facets as it relates to a family Enterprise that need to be understood that we need some specialized education around that we don't just need you know, accounting management Finance leadership, you know, those are all important foundational elements. There are other foundational elements that as it relates entertains to family Enterprise's they're really important to understand as well. Okay question for Kathleen. We only have five minutes left, but I've got a bunch of questions here. I'll just get to the a few that we can but you know when you were when you were showing that that transition from entrepreneur to professional. how do you Help the leader the current generation or the founding generation. Let go enough for the next gen to succeed. Well, there's there's a variety of ways one is to just help to normalize the the dynamic. So again so that they kind of can expect that. It is going to be a challenge for them. I was just talking to First generation founder earlier today and showing him that slide and just acknowledging that he doesn't have to do the structure. He doesn't have to but he does have to download what he knows intuitively so that it is replicable and that there are you know, it's it's almost like a turnkey situation because otherwise there's no transferable value right when he walks out the door all the value walks out with him. So if he wants his earn out, he's gonna have to make sure right that that transferable value is in place and that kind of helps to when you help them to understand that financial future depends on it as well. But just normalizing that it's a it's a tension point and it's a cultural shift and there's also a huge psychological component where they're literally, you know, letting go So, you know the aspects of their identity and handing it to someone else. So making sure they have something else to do post-operation of the business and a lot of times an Advisory Board is an acceptable vehicle for them to move towards as they move out of the day-to-day they can work strategically on the business by you know, sharing and Advisory Board and staying, you know connected in that way and that provides some continuity for the emerging leader. So those are just a few things. Okay. Terrific. Well, we're kind of it coming to the top of the hour and I'm wondering if each of you could provide a key nugget of wisdom the key takeaway for our audience today. Let's let's start with you guys. Education is something that is about the whole person's social emotional development. It's not just a intellectual process and it has to engage all aspects of the person. see mine would be self. knowledge just know yourself type your personality type understand personality typology so that you can you know understand the basic differences between yourself and others and being more effective. Okay move on. Yeah, I would I would urge everybody to keep the core four themes that I identified in in top of my trust relationships responsibility and time really critical. If if anything that you're doing or anything that you're learning about isn't really relevant to one of those things. It's probably not a good use of your time. That's terrific. Well, I'd like to give a plug here to to my friends here at University of Louisville. You do have this program and this is a program that you may want to take a look at for your families if you're viewing here. So I want to thank you for sharing those elements of that want to thank all of our audience members for participating today and listening but Kathleen Vaughn and Dennis. This was really terrific. So I'm going to do one other small plug and just say, you know, Dennis and Dennis mentioned this if you're an owner manager member shareholder next gen of a family owned business join us at the end of this month in Tampa, Florida. We were looking to have a really good crew back together again in person after two very long years and it's a wonderful way to learn the vocabulary family business. In fact, Dennis. Jaffe will be there live and in person so A chance to see him and probably members of about a hundred other family businesses. So it's an incredible Gathering. It should be a lot of fun. It's great. It's great that we'll be back together again. But again, thank you Von Dennis Kathleen. I want to be able to say I hope you'll all join us for future events with us. And in the meantime, I wish you all a wonderful day. We'll see you at our next webinar. Thank you. Thank you.

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