I lead a T.E.C. Canada group which
comprises CEOs and Presidents of both private and publicly traded organizations. Member companies in my group are found listed
in the top 250 companies on the 2015 ROB Top 1000, in the top 1/3 of 2015
Profit 500, in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ and have been finalists in Ernst
Young’s “Entrepreneur of The Year Awards” for 2014 and 2015.
Joining T.E.C. Canada has enabled the leaders of
these organizations, as a team, to share their drive and commitment to enrich
each other’s ability to achieve their individual business, professional and
personal goals. Members act as a private board of trusted advisors with no
agendas other than helping each other share best practices, solve management
issues, make better decisions and improve leadership skills.
As a group we often engage
in “exercises” designed to enhance leadership skills, personal development and
business performance. Recently I had the group work on an exercise entitled “The Green Box Exercise”. This exercise
focuses on personal development.
It’s an exercise that has relevance and
benefits for everyone so I thought that I would share it.
The
Green Box Exercise
John
(an Australian) called his son Jim to let him know that he’d be flying to New Zealand the
following day to try to close an important business deal. Jim, a pilot in the Air Guard Reserves warned
his father that potential Typhoons could make travel hazardous. John laughed and reminded Jim that if
anything tragic happened, to remember to get the “Green Box” out of the closet
in his bedroom.
The next
day, John was killed when his plane crashed into the side of a mountain on the
north island in very low visibility.
Several days after the funeral, he remembered his father’s words about
the Green Box. He called his mother and
they brought the Green Box to the family attorney. Inside, they found 28 envelopes. Here are the labels on the envelopes:
- Letter to my Wife
- Letter to each child (3)
- Letter to the employees
- Letter to my mother / father
- List of most important 5 employees in the company & their strengths/weaknesses
- Off balance sheet deals
- Organizational Chart
- Details of any company trusts
- List of personal and business people that should be contacted in the event of passing
- Deals in process and evaluation of them
- Strategy that I am thinking about but haven’t told anybody about
- List of Trusted Advisors and their roles (may or may not be currently working with company) such as attorney, accountant, etc.
- Instructions not addressed in Will
- Copies of POA documents
- Copy of Passport, Birth Certificate
- Copy of all credit cards
- Copy of physical property titles
- Personal stock portfolio information
- Details of Life insurance—personal and company owned
- Details of all other insurance
- Copies of personal property valuations (Jewelry, guns, collectables, etc.)
- Computer passwords
- Personal financial Statement
- Extra passport photos
- Medical/Dental Charts
- Funeral/Burial Instructions
- Mementos and to whom you’d like them given
The Exercise: Start by addressing envelopes, preferably envelopes of a personal and business nature. Remember that this
will be the start of your green box, and people will read these at the time of
your death.
Some of the items are not trivial to build up but, having done it once,
updating becomes a little easier.
Things like passwords and user names are
a huge issue as are having a clearly defined beneficiary for all your
investments. Burial instructions are a source of family strife as are the
disposition of trinkets and mementos.
Please avoid any changes to your will or additions which may void your
will. These should be done by an attorney and properly registered.
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