Gregory Dale is a psychologist who has a particular interest in assisting farming families with intergenerational farm succession planning. He works with other professionals; legal advisors, financial advisors, accountants and agricultural consultants in a multi-disciplinary method.

Family relationships are lifelong relationships so the process undertaken needs to aim at preserving those important relationships. Gregory’s role is to facilitate the family meetings and he brings a unique style of meeting facilitation. He focuses on identifying the core values which guide decision making and follows a method of negotiations which aims to preserve the family and business relationships.

Using the principled negotiation model developed at Harvard University, Gregory asks family members to reflect on the standards of the farming business and the core values of the family which have operated over many years. Values are standards which are a reference point and determine planning processes and human interaction. Gregory aims to assist the family farm business and the family members. Gregory lives on a family farm and he has been a participant in succession planning with a large family group. It is important to assist family members with different interests by providing them with a facilitated discussion in order to help them navigate the succession milestone and preserve the relationships within the family.