Recently, I have been asked to prepare a paper and present a half-day workshop on how to create and best utilize collaborative franchisee associations. This is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart, as someone who represents dozens of franchisee associations and frequently strives to get those associations into a position where they are closely collaborating with their franchisor. Unfortunately, that task is made much more difficult than it should be by franchisors who do not understand the role they play in setting franchisee association agendas and political dynamics.

For the uninitiated, a franchisee association is much like a union—a group of franchisees who get together to form an alliance primarily aimed at dealing with their relationship with the franchisor on issues of system-wide interest. While having no rights of a union, they are similar in their dynamics and desire to put their members in a better position than they otherwise would be by dealing with the franchisor as a group, instead of dealing with them on their own.

Not surprisingly, and also a lot like unions, franchise associations typically form when there is an inordinate amount of negative energy in a system. Franchisees, like employees, band together when the franchisor engages in conduct that the franchisees ultimately believe is to their detriment. This type of conduct comes in many, many forms. Whether the franchisor has announced a program that franchisees deem harmful to their profitability, makes broad sweeping changes without franchisee input or buy-in or simply ignores repeated requests by franchisees to be heard on issues of importance to franchisees—franchisors are the ones that are driving the negative energy that becomes the nucleus of the formation of a franchisee agreement.