“How-To” – Communication & Conflict- Handling Hard Conversations Without Breaking What Matters

“How-To” 🛠️💬 — Communication & Conflict: Handling Hard Conversations Without Breaking What Matters 🤝✨

How To’s for the Family Business
A series of practical conversations about the real work of running a family business—how you lead, communicate, and make decisions along the way.

Each conversation focuses on a different part of the work—how your business grows, how your people experience it, how decisions get made, and how things actually run day to day.

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Every family business runs into moments where something shifts—a big decision, a change in direction, or pressure from the outside—and tension follows. You may already have a conversation in mind that’s been sitting there longer than you’d like. The challenge isn’t avoiding conflict; it’s knowing how to move through it without damaging relationships or the business itself.

This conversation includes different perspectives on how to handle those moments. We’ll look at how to stay steady in difficult conversations, how to work through differences in a way that can actually strengthen a team, and how to navigate situations where employee concerns, expectations, or complaints add another layer of complexity.

In a family business, those conversations can carry more history than we realize—old roles, long-standing patterns, and relationships that didn’t start at work—which can make things both more meaningful and more complicated.

There will also be space to talk through real scenarios—like growth, succession, or unexpected disruptions—and how communication tends to break down (or hold) in those moments.

The goal is not to script the “right” response, but to help you feel more prepared for conversations that don’t have easy answers.

Speakers: Tara Jenkins, Conscious Revolution (Moderator); Dana Morris-Jones, The Delphi Group (tentative); Peter Lowe, Brann & Isaacson; Dave Ciullo, Career Management Associates

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Continue the conversation (online) with Live Zoom Videocast:  12 noon – 1 p.m.

Midday Conversations

Short online conversations that continue the How To Series, offering practical ways to go a bit deeper on specific topics.

Sponsored by: The Breakwater Group at Morgan Stanley and Mainebiz

• Protecting your business from fraud and internal risk (Risk & Trust)

– Thursday, October 15

Speaker: Amy Taylor, Androscoggin Bank

Trust is built slowly in a business—and can be shaken quickly when something goes wrong. Continuing our conversation on communication and conflict, this Midday Conversation focuses on practical ways businesses can protect themselves from fraud and internal risk while maintaining a healthy, trusting culture. We’ll look at common scams targeting small businesses, warning signs leaders should pay attention to, and practical steps that can reduce risk—from internal controls to cybersecurity awareness and banking tools. A practical conversation designed to help businesses stay proactive without creating unnecessary fear or complexity.