One of the areas of mediation and conflict management that I focus on is family business disputes.

Family business disputes are particularly appropriate for a mediation or a conflict management intervention because the mix of personal issues, family relationships, family history, business issues and all the rest create anxiety and heated emotions on the personal and professional level of unprecedented proportions.

I was re-reading through Patrick Lencioni's book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and I was thinking about the application of the dysfunctions to the family business team and other closely held business partnerships.

Lencioni's premise is that businesses succeed when they operate as a well functioning team. The book goes through a "fable" about a high tech company in California that has a new CEO and her teaching the business team about the five dysfunctions. It is an interesting and informative read.

Business leaders can learn a lot from the modeling of an effective CEO as change agent and leader demonstrated in the book.

The CEO diagrams the 5 dysfunctions of a team in a pyramid. Each dysfunction (or in a healthy team, each element) builds on the next.

The five dysfunctions are (from the base up in ascending order):

5. Absence of Trust. Trust is the foundation of teamwork. Absence of trust is characterized by invulnerability - people on the team are not honest with each other. There is no healthy debate. Members don't admit mistakes, weaknesses and concerns without fear of reprisal.

In Lencioni's fable the team did not trust each other. There was no healthy debate about issues. No sharing of strengths and weaknesses.

In family businesses trust is perhaps even more critical because family members often know each others' strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. Family members have personal history that can affect the maintenance of trust.

For example, a sibling may be stuck with old memories. "When I was seven Johnny stole my piggy bank, so I suspect he's stealing money from the business."

Maintaining trust in a family business situation requires members to let go of the past, communicate well and forgive.

4. Fear of Conflict. As we mediators say, conflict is inevitable. When people are afraid to engage in conflict there is false harmony. The CEO in the fable talks about how conflict will make the meetings interesting. She is quick to point out that she's talking about the need for constructive conflict. She noted the team had tension characterized by passive, sarcastic comments. People were not comfortable expressing conflicting ideas.

In an internal business environment you don't need consensus. The role of the leadership is to make decisions. But there needs to be a forum where people can express their ideas and have them considered. Team members will feel valued when their point of view is heard and esteemed.

In the family business context, fear of conflict is also heightened. We all naturally take from our families of origin the patterns we learned about how to respond to conflict and deal with people into our adult lives. Without reprogramming and retraining, family members will carry on the conflict dysfunction of previous generations.

3. Lack of Commitment. Lack of commitment is characterized by failure of team members to buy-in to the team decisions. The premise here is that people will buy-in once they've had a chance to weigh-in.

Making decisions more of a collaborative process where each division of the company provides input and ideas are vetted leads to people taking ownership over the decisions. Ultimately, as discussed above, the leaders make the decisions, people are likely to be more committed if their ideas were seriously considered and perhaps incorporated.

In the family business context, lack of commitment can be exacerbated because you often have some members actively involved in running the business and other members who aren't. The lack of buy-in is even greater when certain members are removed from the day to day operation of the business. Such members are less likely to feel like they have a voice or that their ideas are heard. Or they may have so little information about the business that they would not know how to provide valuable input.

They may feel alienated and this enhances their lack of commitment. Conversely, the active family business members may feel frustrated by the opposition and lack of commitment of the non-active members. They may resent what they view as inappropriate objections.

It is important that regular systems of communication are instituted to keep family business members in the loop and to foster commitment to shared vision, mission and business goals.

2. Lack of Accountability. No one objects to low standards. Perhaps because the team isn't operating as such, there isn't shared commitment about team goals and objectives. People feel uncomfortable because there's a lack of trust providing honest feedback and accountability.

In the family business context, this problem is particularly tricky. On the one hand, family members may feel more comfortable providing accountability and honest feedback to family members because there is a greater appreciation for the shared interests. Often there may be more trust and openness in family relationships than with strangers.

On the other hand, where there are multiple generations, or strong directive personalities, providing accountability in the family business may be difficult.

Family businesses also face the additional challenge where, for example, a father or other older member must hold sons/daughters accountable. Children or grandchildren may expect special privileges or take the business for granted. Likewise the younger generation may feel intimidated (or like they are being disrespectful) if they attempt to hold older more experienced members accountable.

Clear communication about objectives and exploring the openness of members to accountability systems is an important first step.

1. Inattention to results. This happens when team members are focused on their ego and status. When team members care more about how many goals they scored and disregard whether or not the team won the game, the team is in trouble.

For example, when a team focuses on results instead of individual recognition, the team will move resources from one department to another to make sure each department meets its objectives. With the results oriented approach, the CEO states that everyone becomes responsible for each component part. Everyone is responsible for sales, marketing, technology, product development, finance and so on.

When the team works together to create what the CEO called an "overarching objective" then they can work together to achieve it for each of the component parts.

In the family business context this potential dysfunction can be characterized by other factors besides ego and status. Inattention to results can stem from apathy (perhaps shares were inherited and not earned) and a host of other factors.

Focusing the family business on creating a compelling vision for the family and its business can help family members become interested in the effort to achieve those results.

Even if your focus is on philanthropy results should matter.

Family businesses can be powerful alliances that produce profits and family legacy.

Think about how your family business may be dysfunctional and how you can take steps to change.

Your partner in the process,

Kristina Haymes

Kristina Haymes is an attorney and mediator that specializes in helping family businesses resolve conflict and create compelling family business legacies. www.kristinahaymes.com