Can Sharing Family Stories This Christmas Improve Your Family Business Outcomes?
Announcement posted by Insights 20 Dec 2016
The Research Says Yes.
“… if you want a happier company, team, unit ,organization or family, you need to capture their core identity by creating, refining and retelling your story. That act alone may increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations to come”
Successful Family Businesses Lean on Their Values
Your family business is more than a collection of assets and a client list. It’s more personal than that. It’s driven by values and goals that extend way beyond the balance sheet.
Family values are the connective bonds that bind members together and generate cohesive unity. When you share these values across time and with multiple generations, you create your family legacy.
The Evidence
Dr. Marshall Duke and his colleague Robyn Fivush have spent many years studying the importance of family stories. They provide strong evidence about the benefits of multi-generational family values, rituals and narrative sharing.
They developed a measure called the “Do You Know?” scale that asked children to answer 20 questions. It turns out that simply knowing family history is a strong indicator of emotional health and happiness among upcoming generations.
After a tension-filled extended family gathering, Bruce Feiler writes in the New York Times he became highly motivated to embark on a project to uncover what are the “ingredients that make some families effective, resilient, happy?“.
He approached Dr Marshall Duke, Jim Collins (Management Expert and author of “Good To Great”) and Military leaders and came away with a single theme: ….”if you want a happier company, team, unit ,organization or family, you need to capture their core identity by creating, refining and retelling your story. That act alone may increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations to come”
The Holidays and the Opportunity to Share
We suggest using this holiday season as an opportunity to create or reinforce your family narrative. Tell stories, both good and bad, to reinforce bonds, build strength, improve resilience and contribute to the ongoing legacy of your family business.
A fun place to start? Here are Dr Marshall Duke’s 20 Questions
You could have a look at one of our free videos on The Value of Sharing Your Family History.
And you should also grab our spectacular Family Business Survival Kit — 26 pages of free advice that can make your family business grow stronger and last longer.