Importance of Negotiation
Negotiation is a tool that family members use to understand each other's interests and make explicit ways members can integrate their personal interests with business requirements.
Negotiation is usually the first approach to take before resorting to other ADR methods. It is more informal and affords the parties flexibility. Essentially, negotiation is simply parties identifying an issue and meeting to fix it—they control the process and the solution.
This may seem obvious, as negotiating relationships and disagreements is something that family businesses do all day, every day. However, when a problem gets serious enough, it can sometimes be helpful to recognize an informal negotiation as the first stage in a potential ADR process.