There is no better image of family identity than the family crest, which appears in the FamilyWorks logo. In history, crests were used to identify families—on them were pictured things that were important to that particular family, and they were emblazoned onto clothing, buildings, and artwork. In our logo’s crest, we have identified four different values that we as a company believe are particularly important to us, values that help us to help your family.

Great leaders, great organizations, and great individuals understand their “why,” or their purpose. Families, too, are a special type of organization that needs a shared sense of purpose—a “why.” They need to understand and buy into who the family is, so they can work together as a team to accomplish their goals and realize their dreams. They need a vision, something to motivate them and to work toward.

Every fall as schools reconvene, classrooms meet to talk about classroom expectations. What kinds of practices, attitudes, and behaviors is the class going to uphold as a group this year? Families, too, can use this change of season to talk about family or home expectations. How do you go about a discussion of expectations that actually works? How, as a family, can you build a set of positive behaviors and attitudes that the whole family will commit to. Here are some tips to get you started.

For individuals, setting goals is linked to higher motivation, self-esteem, self-confidence, and autonomy. Goal-setting is also associated with higher achievement. These benefits of goal-setting can also apply to families, with the added benefit of increasing connection and a sense of community and belonging with the people you love the most.

The back-to-schools sales are here! Time to stock up on notebooks, pencils, and binders. Time to start figuring out new schedules, pick-ups, and after-school activities. Summer is over, the general messaging seems to go, as soon as August hits.

But before you dash to your local office store to get all the kids’ school supplies, slow down! Most American families have a couple weeks of summer left before school starts. You still have time to make memories, prepare for the upcoming year in an intentional, mindful way, and reflect on all you did together this summer.

Your young kids may be off-the-wall crazy, or your teens may roll their eyes. But if you consistently emphasize the importance of the family meeting, show mutual respect and affection, and keep it fun, your family will eventually come around. And just like The Berenstain Bears, you can use family meetings to plan, problem-solve, and reinforce your family’s top values on a consistent basis.

It may surprise you, but Nordstrom offers some worthwhile lessons for families. The retailer is unique for its unswerving focus on the customer, and it works hard to promote values that enable the company to provide industry-leading customer service. Families can learn from this. One of the first steps for families in their quest for purpose and identity is to identify the values they hold to be most important. Values are crucial; they set the parameters for how a family behaves on its journey to fulfilling its purpose.

In the wake of the pandemic and related shutdowns, Americans are craving travel.

This year, don’t just take a vacation. Take a road trip. Play games, listen to music, and even be bored together. Wind through the mountains of Appalachia, drive through the fields of Illinois or Kansas, sweat in the deserts of Utah and Nevada. Have an adventure with your family.

It’s easy to let July 4 become just a day off work. But the research all points to the value of building traditions. July 4 doesn’t have to be an awkward holiday. In fact, with a little bit of planning, it can become an anchor to your family’s summer, and a treasure trove of family memories to cherish for years to come.

Summers often start out great. Your kids are basking in being home, out of school, meeting up with friends or family with no cares in the world. You swim, or hike, or go to the park. You have laid-back grilled dinners with friends, and head out for ice cream afterward. Or maybe you build a campfire and do s’mores. 

And then, the summer schedule blues start, sooner than anyone expected. “I’m booooooooored,” says your child(ren). You suggest all kinds of (to you) fun-sounding activities, only to be met with a shake of the head. You get irritated. Your child rolls her eyes. It spirals from there.

We’ve all been there. The bus (or car) leaves for school in five minutes, but your kids are nowhere near ready. One is rolling around on the floor in his pajamas, one is refusing to eat her cereal, and the third needs help finding a lost backpack. You’ve patiently waited, you’ve coaxed, you’ve pleaded, but now, you’re getting desperate. You start to yell—again. And when you do all make it school (late) none of you are feeling good about the day so far.

Most American parents approach meals together with a sense of fear, dread, or both. They may have lovely images in their head of children cheerfully chatting while eating home-cooked quinoa with spinach. Kids respectfully answer questions about their day, while parents enjoy their meal and even chat about work. Everyone finishes what’s on their plate without grumbling. The whole family pitches in with clean-up, without being asked. Reality is so different.

Establishing a regular family meeting is perhaps the single, most important thing you can do for your family. The benefits are numerous and often immediate: clarity of family identity, better communication and teamwork, greater likelihood of achieving family goals, etc.

Americans like to identify health with “how I look.” Imagine the covers of most fitness or health magazines in the supermarket check-out lane. In these, “health” looks the same: low body weight, toned musculature, bright white teeth, all-over good looks. Health is attractive. But there is much, much more to health than eating right and exercising. In fact, in his research into the longest-lived groups of people around the world, longevity expert Dan Buettner identified 9 common attributes that these groups shared—and only one of them had to do with fitness, and three with food or drink. The rest of the “Power 9,” as Buettner calls them, have to do with having a sense of purpose, deliberate stress management, social connectedness and belonging, and rootedness in family.

After your family has identified its mission and vision and started outlining a strategic plan, your next steps are to figure out what goals you need to achieve to accomplish your plan. Chances are, it’s going to take quite a few steps to get to your “Wildly Important Goal.”

Your strategic plan is going to include a number of different areas: your finances, your education, your children, your emotional and physical health and well-being. The first step toward achieving your family’s mission and vision is to identify what you need to do to get there. Focus on big-picture stuff right now

Kobe’s life tells us a lot about “vision”—the ultimate dream, your family’s biggest goal, where you want you and your family to go. The vision is the thing that keeps you motivated and on-task. It is an example of what author Sean Covey in The Four Disciplines of Execution calls a “WIG,” or “Wildly Important Goal.” Covey writes that in the business world, “only 15 percent of employees actually know their organization’s most important goals—either there are no goals or they have too many goals.” Intelligent, ambitious people want to do more, not less, says Covey. But to achieve true greatness, it is crucial to narrow your focus to one wildly important goal—and that goal then becomes the prism through which you view your other day-to-day goals or activities. 

For us, innovation is about taking some of the best ideas from the worlds of psychology, business, systems theory, academia, and others and applying them to the family setting. Innovation is using tech tools to implement new systems and new practices in your family.

We are wired to need each other to fulfill our greater purpose, and we find that belonging and purpose first in the family. From earliest childhood, human beings experiment with belonging in the family unit.

Discover your unique family purpose, simplify decision-making, collaborate with a community of like-minded families, and integrate related apps and resources. Create a roadmap of where your family wants to go, and the specific steps you will need to take to get there.