Building Communities of Learning in Family Business Programs.

Community-based family business networks face significant challenges if they are to thrive and develop. They can increase their effectiveness by incorporating the principles and practices of a learning community into their programs. This paper presents a learning community approach to family business education where participants explore their assumptions about family and business, challenge their preconceptions, learn from each other, and discover new ways to take action. Also presented here are models for internal and cross-family learning, for professional development of family business participants, and for learning among the professional service sponsors.

Introduction

Many people learn about family business through membership in one of the many family business learning networks that have been created around the country and, increasingly, the world. More than 100 such networks are in the United States, and they represent a new approach to combining community service and education to the business community.

These community-based networks bring together concerned and motivated members of local business families for a series of learning activities and social events. There is often a membership fee, which can be nominal or quite high. Although the focus may be on business, it is an unusual business gathering because family members not active in the business are encouraged to participate. By design, the activities of these networks mix personal, family, and business topics. The purposes of the networks include the following:

* Developing a safe environment for discussing the special difficulties of combining family and business

* Offering families access to professional resources

* Connecting with others facing similar challenges