Partnerships

To be honest about what each side is getting before anybody signs anything. Most partnerships that fail did not fail on execution. They failed because the two parties wanted different things and neither said so.

Use it before the first serious conversation and again before any agreement. Filling in the other side’s column is the part that does the work, and being unable to fill it in is itself the finding.

Write what you want from this, plainly, including the thing you would not say in the meeting. Then write what you think they want, and mark how confident you are in each line.

Anything you marked as a guess is a question for the next conversation rather than an assumption to build on. Then write what each side is putting in, and what happens if one side stops. A partnership with no answer to that last question is a favour with paperwork.

Enthusiasm from one person is mistaken for commitment from their organisation. They are genuinely keen, they have no budget line, and the partnership is real until the quarter they are measured on arrives.

The other failure is leaving the money and the work vague because the conversation is going well. Who pays for what, who does the first version, and who owns what comes out of it are easier to settle while everyone is optimistic than six months in. Write the unwinding too. Knowing how this ends is what makes it safe to start.