About Roles and Rules

What Is Roles and Rules?

Roles and Rules™ is a model of human development and interaction originated by Richard Goldwater, M.D., which maintains that:

• We form our identities in the roles into which we are born, such as brother, sister, oldest, youngest, American, Norwegian, and so on, and in the roles we choose, such as spouse, parent, teacher, artist, engineer, or entrepreneur. Roles are hierarchical in nature, and they confer social rank and responsibility.
• We interact according to rules that, by agreement, guide and govern our behavior. For example, all autos in traffic travel according to the same rules of the road. In a democracy, laws apply equally to us as citizens. Rules thus have an equalizing effect among people and enable them to participate in social structures that are governed by rules.

Together Roles and Rules form the various structures in which people deal with one another. People develop the most useful and generative structures when they understand Roles and Rules and combine them in balanced ways. Certain social structures, such as democracies, combine Roles and Rules more usefully than others, such as dictatorships, which run mainly on roles.

Similarly, in family business and governance, certain combinations of Roles and Rules will create more stable, generative, and enduring structures than others. We assist people in developing and adopting the best structures for them, given their needs, goals, and skills.

The Rules Crisis

A Rules Crisis is a normal stage in the development of good governance. Such a crisis occurs whenever the roles that have guided people in the past no longer apply, and they must figure out how to make new agreements that will carry them forward. The American Revolution was a Rules Crisis. Between 1776 and 1791, the roles of British monarchy and colonial authority fell away, and the American people had to create a new Constitution.

A Rules Crisis occurs in a family when an elder generation passes away and the next generation must learn how to govern itself. This is especially apparent in the natural history of family business. When a family with a business or other major assets encounters a succession or estate planning situation, their Rules Crisis arises.

Using our process, trademarked as From Roles to Rules, we help testators and family members and their advisors to address the Rules Crisis in the ways that will work best for them.

From Roles to Rules

From Roles to Rules™ helps people to:

• Recognize that difficulties naturally arise from friction between their family roles and legal and business "rules"
• Respect all viewpoints and use objective language
• See the family and its business and wealth in a larger context
• Consider issues of legacy, responsibility, governance, and personal growth

From Roles to Rules helps families place their past, present, and future in context. With professional guidance, they see how family roles have shaped their business and governance practices in both positive and negative ways. With this perspective they can:

• Accept the nature and legitimacy of their various points of view
• Understand the challenges of their Rules Crisis and their options for addressing it
• Make informed keep-or-sell decisions
• Define new roles and craft new rules that enable each family member to participate
  in governance in useful ways
• Create legal provisions and agreements that "hard wire" their new Roles and Rules into the business and governance structure

Without therapy or counseling, From Roles to Rules provides experiential learning. Through assessment tools, modeled leadership, facilitated work sessions, and assigned projects, people learn—often for the first time—how to function in business-based (rather than family-driven) roles and how to "play by" rules that apply equally to all.

The Roles and Rules Difference

While many advisors try to help families with their "issues," we combine psychology and law in the following ways:

• We have no preconceived notions of what's best for the testator, family, and business; instead, we help people decide their own futures.
• We act as "midwives" to deliver the family's conception of the business or governance structure to the next generation.
• Our approach rests on the Roles and Rules model of human development, which respects each person's viewpoint and leads them to see their own unique strengths, weaknesses, needs, and potential.
• Family members' new Roles and Rules find expression in the legal, business, and financial structures they adopt.
• We facilitate plans and transitions, rather than leave people to sink or swim.

We recognize the traditional estate planning goals of minimizing taxes, assuring financial security, protecting assets, and providing liquidity. Yet we are unique in giving equal weight to the family and business, human and financial, and psychological and legal aspects of succession and estate planning.

For sources of more information on Roles and Rules in estate planning and family governance, visit the Publications page at this Website or contact us.