3. Establishing the Right Arrangements

How will you agree to share information and knowledge?

To collaborate effectively sharing information is really important. If you are unwilling to share or unable to convince your partner they can trust you with their information, there is unlikely to be any scope for collaboration. You must agree at the outset what can and cannot be shared and how, with clarity of who owns what and how you will share any future joint developments or intellectual property. As well as what happens when the relationship ends?

What's your approach to effective communication?

A huge component of collaboration is the quality of your communication. Direct, honest and diplomatic requests, instructions and feedback are crucial to ensure that solutions are jointly progressed and/or issues are addressed, and appropriate improvements made. Both during the engagement step and then to joint management it is good to have established regular points of communication, to ensure you can discuss with your partner the progress of the collaboration and any issues which arise.

How will you ensure that the collaborative partnership will deliver?

The driving force behind business collaboration should always be to create additional value, such as increasing market access, or often less tangible, such as to improve reputation, credibility or supporting social initiatives. If relationships are not actively maintained and continually improved, they can plateau.

A major benefit of collaboration is to share ideas and harness alternative perspectives. Organisations that look for additional benefit once the relationship is in place will often exceed their original objectives and perform much better overall. Ensure you have a way to work with your partner to encourage new ideas. Also, share views on risk and manage these jointly, to ensure you work together to protect against and mitigate impacts. Ensure those involved agree and understand what it is for your collaborative context and with partners. Don't ignore the opportunity for making improvements through joint lessons learned.