Continued from Page 11. Decide who is your family's manager. Someone needs to run the home from the perspective of an executive manager, keeping in mind that Family Management, like all good management, is not about an autocratic leader imposing arbitrary standards from on high. It's about sharing responsibility, helping each person find their niche, and empowering them to succeed.
2. Create a base of operation. Every manager needs a "Control Central" -- be it a desk, countertop, or office. In a company, it's the place from which a manager calls the shots. In a home it's the place from which the Family Manager makes lists, organizes household details, and tracks the family's schedule.
3. Know your mission. Successful businesses know what's important for their success. Families should, too. Have you and your spouse discussed what you value most? When your children leave home, what memories do you want them to take with them? Knowing the answers to these questions will give you a yardstick against which to measure the many decisions you make daily.
4. Define what clean and organized means in your family. In business, people with different personalities and preferences must work together toward common goals. The same goes in a family. Neat people and messy people in a family must learn to communicate their preferences in healthy ways and negotiate their way to fair solutions and mutually agreed-upon expectations.
5. Delegate responsibilities. Use a "Who's Responsible for What" list to launch family discussions about division of labor.
Download and print.6. Create SOPs. Unlike other "businesses," the family never shuts down. Creating standard operation procedures (routines) for your morning schedule, housework, laundry, meals, family time, and such -- is critical to a family's peace of mind and evenness of spirit, day in and day out.
It's never too late to make simple changes and discover new ways of working together to reduce stress in the most important organization in the world -- your family.
