Family Meeting Topics Ideas

You want to hold a family meeting, but what do you need to talk about? The heart of a family meeting is to go deeper than just surface level topics or day-to-day planning. It should be a transformative space that moves you to growth and new actions. Let’s talk about a few topics you can include in your family meetings to help generate conversation.

Family Meeting Topics List

Not every topic needs to be addressed in every meeting, but you can pull from these various family meeting topics depending on your family’s current needs. (Learn more about how to create an agenda for your family meeting here.)

• Values, Vision, and Mission 

We always recommend talking about your values, vision, and mission in every family meeting, but sometimes they need a deeper dive. Talk about where to improve, what has gone well, or maybe even new ideas. You don’t want to let values, vision, and mission get stagnant so keep them forefront with your family and its daily life.

• Check-Ins and Updates

One of the basic principles of a family meeting is to keep family connected, so you want to keep space to check-in and hear from people individually. We highly recommend creating your own list of specific check-in questions that you can refer back to and continue to add to. For example, you might need to add in time for updates based on goals discussed in a previous meeting.

• Communication or Conflict

An important topic for your family meeting is anything related to family communication. Whether it is an issue that needs to be resolved or a new idea to implement, the family meeting space should be utilized to tackle these topics. When your family knows that the meeting can be a safe space to talk, it can help address things sooner rather than letting problems fester. Add an agenda time specifically dedicated to work on this topic if needed.

• Goals and Calibration

Beginning to dream together and work towards those things is one of the most fun parts of a family meeting. Talk about new goals, check in on current progress, and make sure everyone is in alignment with this topic. When you identify goals, we’d encourage you to create questions that you all agree on to check in on progress. Ensuring you stay on track with the actions and purpose is important.

• Generosity

Because generosity is key to living out your values as a family, keep this topic ready to add into your agenda when needed. Whether it is sharing updates, having space for people to bring new ideas or proposals, or creating an action plan, this can be a helpful topic to implement.

Helpful Hint: If you are unsure about implementing family meetings to begin with, generosity is one of the best ways we’ve seen to get families to come to the table. Saying “Hey, we have $100 to give away! Let’s talk about how to do this!” is usually an appealing and fun opportunity.

• Feedback or Assessments

This topic goes a step deeper than just doing check-ins or progress reports. Here is where you are carving out intentional time to do a full assessment on a particular area in your family. The purpose of this is to stay intentional about evaluation to keep growing or to address if there has been an area that has been challenging.

Tips for Choosing Your Family Meeting Topics

There is never a shortage of good things you could talk about as a family but stay attuned to where you family currently is at and what will help you progress. This is also an important area to listen to the feedback from your family. The family meeting needs to be a place for everyone to engage, not just driving one person’s desired agenda, so make sure you have the habits in place to hear feedback. It might not always be direct too, so it takes discernment.

Overall, remember the tone of a family meeting: fast, fun, informative, and actionable. Assess your topics through that lens. You don’t have to accomplish everything at once, so stay focused on your next right steps. Keep an idea list to save up things you want to get to as well!

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Ready to keep growing? Our partners at 7th Gen Consulting have an online workshop where you can learn to build your family’s values, vision, and mission to start your roadmap to success. Visit it here for more information: www.7thgenconsuling.com/virtual