Transition:	G1 to G2
Context:	Large emotional family with liquid wealth
Brief:	G1 had raised children with strong personalities that often clashed.  Entitlement was a problem, but not overwhelming.  Communication was tangled, conflicted and often occurred in hurtful and manipulative ways.
Challenge:	To engage the different personalities of the children, allow them to find ways of relating to one another through explicit agreements that fostered healthier communication and to create pathways for difficult conversations with one another in a safe environment.
Bright spots:	The family members were willing to confront difficult issues rather than avoid conflict. The matriarch and patriarch were motivated to create a multi-generational legacy and willing to address “hard truths” in order to realize that dream.
Gathering:	One and a half day gathering with all of G1 and G2 focused on improving communication.
Meeting Design:	Day one of the meeting was organized to create a “covenant of right relations”.  This was an agreement that spelled out a few of the family’s core values and specific agreements around how family members hold conversations, how people would manage themselves, how they would address relationships with each other and how they would represent the family to the world. Their agreements included such things as “communicate with one another with candor and kindness, challenge and support” and “[individually] address and resolve conflicts in a positive way”, “work to manage tendencies to attack or withdraw” and “deal directly with the people with whom I have issues.” There was also a section that created healthy practices through very specific agreements around managing tense situations, conflict and disagreement.  All family members signed this covenant.  The following day, there was some practice done in the context of holding a few “difficult” conversations in a very supportive and highly structured setting. This allowed family members to become more open to one another and begin to address a number of issues that had festered for some time.  These discussions touched on very difficult events from the past and the differing personality structures of the children.  It was the first time the family had held such discussions without the situation falling into recrimination, anger and withdrawal.
Results:	Much of the air was cleared in a positive and constructive way.  The family continues to have disagreement and certain people in the family are not particularly close, but the agreements allow them to function differently with one another and the there is growing confidence that the family has the skills to address areas of disagreement in productive and useful ways. The family continues to use the covenant in empowering ways and is proud of the fact that they are managing conflict more effectively.