| The unique nature of farm businesses in which the partners often live and work together was the focus of workshop in Longreach on 14 December featuring family business communication consultant Lyn Sykes.
The Succession “the future of the family business” Workshop was hosted by the Muttaburra Bestprac Group and sponsored by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), Leading Sheep, MKL Rural and Grazing BestPrac.
Based on 20 years’ experience, Ms Sykes believes country people often communicate in an understated way that focuses on daily routines and tasks. They often fall into the trap of talking about what’s going wrong rather than what’s going right, particularly with the ongoing drought as a backdrop.
That’s why the Leading Sheep Central West regional committee wanted to be involved in a fun, informative and flexible workshop designed to introduce rural families to strategies and concepts to help improve their communication and understanding of each other.
Leading Sheep is an AWI project in partnership with the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and supported by AgForce, which targets the adoption of new technologies and practices to increase the productivity and profitability of the Queensland wool industry.
The workshop had purposefully been scheduled for the start of the school holidays to allow older children, who may soon be interested in being involved in the family business, to attend.
The workshop covered a range of strategies for improving family communication and introduced some concepts that will enable the first steps in succession planning to occur.
The range of topics covered included:
• New decision-making frameworks
• Principles of good family communication
• Separating family and business issues
• How to maximise family members contributions to the business
• Appreciating different roles within the family
• Increase business returns through communication skills
• First steps in succession planning
Other guest speakers were solicitor Anna Radel from Wright Clarke Solicitors, accountant Bill Ringrose from O’Regan & Partners Accountants, financial planner Trevor Bridger from BDO Kendalls Financial Planners and agribusiness consultant Peter Whip from PRW Agribusiness.
For more information:
The primary organiser was Joy Hardie from Verastan Muttaburra on 4658 7285.
Margot Macintosh from Fairfield, Longreach is also happy to provide comments for this article on 4658 3886.
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