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4. Managing and Sustaining Your Relationship

Work in tandem - together you should optimise your relationship approach to get best results.

Are you able to jointly manage the relationship with your partner?

Business relationships can change over time, often due to the impact of external factors (i.e. political, economic, sociological, technological, environmental, legal, ethical or demographics), which in turn can necessitate changes internally to the business. So, it is important to embed the collaborative practice in the way you operate in your business and together. This means reviewing how you are working together and updating your rules of engagement set out in a joint relationship management plan to maintain performance.

How are you building trust with you partner?

Collaboration relies on trust, open communication, honest feedback and no surprises. You must work to build and maintain trust with every act with a partner. There is not a single definition of trust that works for all, as trust is a feeling triggered by context. It's important to understand what supports or undermines trust and that these are monitored. You need to think about how you can ensure this and what happens if this gets compromised.

Do you focus on behaviours?

People must display the right behaviours in a collaboration. These collaborative behaviours need to be well understood and if individuals cannot or will not follow them this must be addressed. Some guidance for teams and individuals will be appropriate. A visible charter with behaviours and other fundamentals can help.

Is the collaboration equitable?

Even though there may be a difference in size when organisations collaborate a sustainable relationship must exhibit equality across the participating organisations to yield mutual benefit. The arrangement may be that the party that invests the most gets the most; however, it must be by agreement and must pass the fairness test. It might also be reasonable that from time to time one party gets more but over time one party cannot miss out consistently, or the collaboration will fail.

How are you managing and monitoring the relationship?

Performance should be measured and reviewed jointly on a regular basis. At predefined times (i.e. say 6 months, or a year), conduct a senior review to take stock and evaluate whether the collaboration is achieving what it set out to. Key questions would be is our management of the collaboration effective, adequate, and is it being maintained?

How are any issues handled?

Ensure that there is an appropriate and simple approach to how you can resolve any serious issues to avoid them turning into disputes, by establishing a jointly agreed issue resolution process. Never let any issues, that one or both of the partners sees as serious, linger so long that they damage the relationship.

HOW-TO GUIDE

INTRODUCTION
Getting your house in order
1.
Finding the right partner
2.
Establishing the right arrangements
3.
Managing and sustaining your relationship
4.
Disengage and Learn
5.
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