There are lots of good metaphors that one can use to talk about things that happen in business families, and when I hear a new one it’ll usually make its way into one of these blog posts.
I often talk about the eclectic inspirations for my posts, and this one actually came during a meditation recording that I was listening to one morning recently.
The meditation leader was working listeners through a visualization, and began talking about untying a knot. He then went on to the idea of starting on the outside, and working your way into the middle.
Hmmm, I thought, this could be a nice metaphor for a blog post, I hope I remember to note this idea when the recording is over. (I did).
Another Bilingual Twist
Regular readers will also know that whenever I come across an interesting translation item, I love to flag it here as well, and if you like it when I do that, you’re in luck.
There’s a word that’s sometimes used in English, “dénouement”, which means “the final part of a play, or movie, in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved”.
People who know some French may recognize the root word in the center of “dénouement”, i.e. “noeud” (trust me on this one), which is the literal translation of “knot”, so it’s actually about untying a knot.
Well I thought it was pretty cool…
Family Business Issues
The way I think about all this with business families, is mostly about how an outsider often enters into a system with many players, and immediately gets confronted with a confusing mess.
As I like to say when explaining the basics of family systems theory to people, yes, you need to look at all the components of the system, i.e. the various people, BUT, more importantly, you need to look at the relationships between the people, because that’s where all the action is.
I sometimes refer to this as each person being a “point” (of a triangle, for example) and the relationships being the lines that join the points into a shape (i.e. the triangle).
If we now turn these lines into pieces of rope, string, or wire, we get our proverbial knot.
Going from the Outside, In
So now let’s go back to the meditation idea that talked about starting on the outside and working our way in. It seems only logical to proceed this way, right?
Well, as an outsider, yes, it is obvious.
If, however, you’re one of the people involved, and you are dealing with your sibling, parent, child, or cousin, how obvious is it? And what if you add an “s” to each of those (siblings, parents, etc.) and what about changing the “or” in that question to an “and”?
Those are rhetorical questions of course, but my point is that when you are in the middle of a big mess, or knot, if you prefer, the idea of looking at it from an outsider’s perspective is rarely top of mind.
Neutral Third Party
When the members of a family business are stuck in a “knot”, I think it makes plenty of sense for them to reach out to someone on the outside, someone who is neutral, who won’t take sides.
Leaving aside for a moment the question of where a family might find such a resource, let’s think about what this person could bring to the situation.
The family members who are involved will surely have challenges with viewing things with the objectivity required to find a resolution, and so objectivity is clearly one of the greatest benefits an outsider can bring.
Calming Presence
But in addition to an objective, unemotional perspective, what this person can also offer is a calming presence, which should allow all participants some time to breathe and think more clearly.
The outside is definitely the best place to begin to untie any knot, and if you can find someone who is already on the outside, then you can be well on your way to starting to make some progress.
A situation may look difficult and drastic from the inside, but a neutral third party can be just what you need to work you all through to the dénouement you all need.
