Talking, Listening, Sharing: The First DH&S executive family seminar;

              The First DH&S Executive Family Seminar
Talking, Listening, Sharing
Firm history was made the first week in June at Stouffer's Inn in White Plains, New York, arid the 124 new partners, directors and their wives who were present appeared to have enjoyed the experience. The event was the first national Executive Family Seminar heid by Deloitte Haskins & Sells, with the emphasis on the husband-wife teamwork that becoming a partner or director implies.
For the better part of the three days and evenings of the seminar the group was helped, through a carefully struc-tured program, to become aware of the possible ways of coping with conflicting pulls between their pro-fessional and their private lives. The seminar members listened to dis-cussion leaders, watched films and video tapes, read, wrote down their own thoughts, talked privately, spoke up publicly and conversed in small groups. They became immersed in the subjects under discussion. When it was all over several participants were heard to comment:
"This is the most valuable meeting we have been to in years!"
It was this accolade that marked the seminar as a resounding success. And to the best of the firm's knowledge, it is the first meeting of its kind in the public accounting profession. Bob Pivik, PiC-personnel, outlined the origin and purpose of the seminar when he opened the first day's proceedings:
"Previously this meeting for new partners was called the Management Seminar, which was one part of our overall management education pro-gram for partners and directors. This year spouses are attending. [Editor's note: throughout the seminar the term "spouse" was used regularly, al-though this year all spouses happened to be wives. 1 Changes were made to
accommodate that fact and the program was renamed the Executive Family Seminar....
"Becoming a partner or director is not something that happens on June 3, 1979, or on any one day, for that matter. The process started the day you joined the firm. And some time after that your spouse began to share to some extent whatever happened during the time that followed — your success, your disappointments, your joys, your frustrations, your growth, your doubts. It seems only fitting, then, that this time at this meeting should also be shared."
Bob went on to explain that the sem-inar had evolved from similar programs, without spouses, started in the 1960s and changed in recent years to meet the needs of new partners. "Back in •1973 when we were converting the program primarily to the needs of new partners," he said, "the specific slant of those changes was conceived by Charlie Goldsmith (management
Training specialist in EO continuing education) at the suggestion of his wife Yvonne. She had attended a similar pro-gram at the Harvard Business School under the direction of Dr Barrie Greiff. In a combined effort Barrie and John Drake developed and conducted the program at the 1974 management seminar, and at every seminar since,
"I believe one of the objectives of this seminar is to help us cope with some of the realities of life. Certainly the firm contributes its share of encounters with business realities: career am-bitions versus perceived opportunities, relocation, travel, stress — to name a few. Within our personal lives we deal with other challenges: keeping com-munication lines open with family members, handling upsets, staying healthy mentally and physically and finding out more about ourselves. In simple terms, we have to keep up with the 'current developments' of life,"
Attendance of wives at the seminar was remarkably high, in view of the
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