How to have family business meetings that are productive––and short
Jenn Wheeling and her four siblings were raised at the James Ranch in Durango, Colorado. At 18 they were sent out into the world, but one by one four of the five came back to live on the ranch and raise their families. Their parents’ requirement was that they each start their own businesses, which they did. The families now have enterprises that include vegetables and flowers, milk and cheese, trees, a restaurant, and of course regeneratively-produced meat.
Each of these businesses operates independently, but the family needs to work together to make decisions about the ranch overall. So they adopted a process that streamlines that work, called the Delegated Meeting Process. Adopted from a process Joe Wheeler learned in his corporate work, it allows meetings to flow with a minimum of wasted time, ego, and unnecessary impediments––crucial pieces to making a family ranch operate smoothly and with interpersonal harmony.
Joe and Jenn Wheeling will speak about this process at the REGENERATE Conference in November in Santa Fe.
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