The non-farming members of a farming family can be a great resource and important contributors to the transition planning process.
However, communication and involvement are highly correlated with positive planning experiences for all stakeholders. Early adoption of formal communication can mitigate potential conflict and leverage the contributions from the non-farming members.
Non-farming family members have a vested interest in the success of the farm business. Furthermore, since they are not active in the day-to-day operations and management, they can often provide valuable insight because they are viewing challenges and opportunities from a different frame of reference.
Leveraging their contributions can make the process both smoother and more effective when done intentionally. This often leads to better outcomes for everyone involved.
This article will focus on the dynamic of, and contributions associated with, non-farming members of the succeeding generation. That is, the siblings and spouses who are not actively working on the farm and who have no future plans to manage the farm operation. It should be noted that plans and opportunities can change, and every farm is unique.
One example is a farm with which a colleague of mine worked.
The mother and father have three children. One of the daughters and her spouse were away, working off the farm. The retiring generation proceeded with their planning, assuming that the daughter and her spouse would never return to the farm. Both had established off-farm careers.
Then they got the phone call — the daughter and her spouse wanted to return to the farm. This created a substantial change in the succession plans, causing financial and managerial arrangements to be reworked to incorporate the new reality. The resulting change was mostly a positive impact.
The opposite impact though, on a different farm, could have been the result as well — hurt feelings, financial stress, managerial overlaps and conflict. In some situations, conflict can be severe, to the extent that the next generation decides to walk away and not pursue a farming career. Negative and lifelong impacts on relationships can result.
Unfortunately, very real situations exist where families cannot gather together at Thanksgiving — or Christmas.
Communication with all family members throughout the planning process, farming or not, will help lower the chances of being caught off guard by events such as this.
Establishing clear and open lines of communication is the single most important tool in your toolbox for maximizing contributions and minimizing conflict. Creating space and time for the contributions of non-farming family members often results in new or different approaches to decision making and other positive impacts to the planning process. It certainly also helps to mitigate future potential for conflict.
During the early stages of plan development, farm management teams will be susceptible to a variety of challenges. One that is particularly important is generating buy-in and trust among all stakeholders.
This is why it is common among farm families that experience relative success with their planning process to have formalized meetings, such as agendas, note-takers, distribution of minutes and action items.
It is also common among these families to invite all stakeholders to participate. The early stages of plan development are generally focused on goal-setting, vision-setting and other big picture topics, and this is where family members who aren’t involved in operational and financial management can make a contribution.
It stands to reason that the opposite is also true.
I have worked with several families that experience initial progress and later come to discover that an individual is not happy with where things are heading or disagrees with particular decisions. They felt left out.
Looking back, those are situations where more buy-in and trust could have been achieved through more inclusion of the non-farming successors in the planning process.
Key elements of formalizing communication include:
Create and set a standardized meeting cadence with dates.
Develop agendas, and distribute notes, even to non-farming family members who may choose not to participate. It helps to explain “why” they should get the notes.
Create an online portal or storage site so communication and information can be posted and accessed remotely online
One last thing to remember is that involvement can’t or shouldn’t be forced. Sometimes, non-farming successors are not available due to distance or time constraints, or perhaps they are not interested.
In these instances, it is suggested that invitations and meeting minutes continue to be sent so that they can remain up to speed on progress and decisions. The key is transparency so that possible future discontent can be mitigated.
Gavin Betker is a farm management consultant with Backswath Management Inc. He can be reached at 204-995-4978 or .
