LAST week, Harry and Sally McNabb were trying to get Harry's father, Ted, to review succession plans for the farm.

Ted thinks that it is all done and dusted because he and Midge have made their wills and he is "sort of" retired. Ted thinks that succession is an event.

He retired and put Harry in charge and that fixed management succession.

He has made his will and that fixed estate planning.

But when Harry talked to his sister and agricultural consultant, Jill, he got a different view.

Jill reckons that succession is not an event, but rather a process that can take years to plan, communicate and put in place.

It isn't easy and there is no one recipe.

Success can be measured by the success of the farm as a business and by family harmony.

Successful plans evolve when "key" people have a comfortable relationship and an open-door communication policy - they need to trust each other.

Succession is the planned and orderly transfer of responsibility and decision making, over a period of time, from one individual or group to another.

During the handover period there may be shared responsibility.

Because of the history, there is no trust between Ted and Norm (Harry's elder brother), a cold war between Ted and Sally, and friction between Harry and Norm. Jill tries to be patient with them all but finds it very wearing.

Ted's wife, Midge, just wants everyone to get along.

Jill says that the basic unit of currency in most farms is trust. "If you destroy trust then nothing else matters," she says.

The easiest way to destroy trust is say "yes" when you mean "no", keep secrets and fail to pay the children (who are now in their forties) at commercial rates. Too often the promise is that they will be paid through the will.

Information passed on verbally and separately to individual family members will mean different things to each person.

In contrast written plans, shared collectively, provide a clear path to all.

As with CEOs, the difference between a good and great farmer is how well they establish a path for their chosen successor to follow so they can step aside.

The greatest legacy is smooth succession.

Jill summed up her conversation with Harry by saying: "Look at Mum's family. Succession was a process; it was about people, relationships, changing roles, and respect for differences.

"It solved the problem of the changing the father, son (employer: employee) relationship so it become open and comfortable. It was fair, which in Mum's case was not equal. It was driven by family values, wants, needs and concerns and most importantly it worked."

Harry thinks that in Ted's "family" they still have a lot of work to do.