Your farm is a family business, and, together, you are creating a legacy that will continue forward into the next generations. In order for your farm to be successful, there are many important components to consider.
When you both live and work with the same people, it’s difficult to maintain a personal and professional life balance. Farm family meetings are essential to the lasting success of your operation as well as the happiness and strength of your familial relationships.
Here are a few tips to get you started with your first farm family meeting:
- Set a standard meeting time and commit. Consider this your “staff” meeting. Although we are family that live and work together, miscommunication still occurs. Having everyone in one location for a meeting will help keep you on the same page and strengthen your operation. By committing to regularly scheduled meetings, you are placing value on the team.
- Create an agenda. All meetings need an agenda. It keeps you on track and makes sure all the important subjects are discussed. It adds formality to the meeting as well, which is important in a meeting focused on your business. Before the agenda is shared, you can also ask other members if they would like to add anything to the agenda. Everyone has a voice.
- Rotate responsibilities. Since this is a family farm, everyone has the responsibility to contribute. Within your meeting, rotate responsibilities. Who will take minutes? Who will create the agenda? Who will facilitate time to keep you on track? Determine what your meeting will look like and include all family members. You can even get little ones involved!
- Listen to all perspectives. The goal of a meeting is to facilitate communication and decision making. In order to do so and keep everyone involved, your family must commit to listening effectively. Create ground rules for your meeting about communication and hold everyone to the same standard. If you do experience conflict, invite a neutral party to mediate.
- Build in time for talking about family, too. As we mentioned earlier, working and living together can make it difficult to find balance. You face different barriers than other families due to the nature of the operation. Acknowledge the difficulty in your farm family meetings and provide space to discuss issues and feelings that arise. Actively brainstorm and implement ideas to keep your family as healthy as your business.
Farm family meetings are as fun and effective as you make them. Going in with an open mind and exploring how the structure, timing, and communication work within your operation strengthens your farm and family to create a more successful life.
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