Book excerpt: In Untangling Conflict, the authors guide families in business through an introspective process that hel s them determine their own bespoke approaches to preventing and mitigating conflict. Drawing on decades of lessons learned from supporting families and the businesses they own, the book brings conflicts to life through the lens of a fictional family and the business conglomerate they own. Readers of the book begin by grounding themselves in the defining attributes of their family and their relationship with the business through deep reflection. The book untangles messy threads of conflict within family businesses by examining issues laden with emotion, those related to the rights, benefits, and restrictions of ownership, and issues of business strategy. By exploring these three threads of conflict, the authors help families understand, prevent, and respond to disagreements, without disrupting the family business. Lastly, the book offers tools to align expectations and reduce friction between families, non-family employees, and the partners of the family-owned businesses.