Being Collaborative, not Combative, in your Contracts: The Recap

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men called Andrew (no, not that one).

The plan was to send a recap of all the steps that make up the Relationship First Law OS Contracts edition a week or so after the last newsletter in that series (the one about Aron Ralston’s horrible experience with a large rock).

More than a week or so has definitely elapsed since then.  A lot more than a week. For that I apologise.

You see, when I started to write down all of the steps set out in the R1L Contracts series, I immediately wasn’t happy with how well they all sat together. And incoherence is a problem when you’re trying to help people tread a different, more productive, path.

My immediate reaction was to mope about a bit, to be honest: “How could I be so stoopid?”  Especially as I’m half using these newsletters as preparation for a book. But then I shrugged that off and got down to doing the required work: trying to make the steps clearer.

So, after longer than I’d have liked, I can now share that recap with you now: here is the R1L Contracts 101:

Eight things you should do before, during and after signing an agreement:

1.  Know who you're getting into bed with

Do your homework before you pick up a pen. And take time to actually get to know them as people, not just as a business partner. Trust is the magic ingredient for long-term success and you can’t build trust without first building rapport.

2.  Build a deal that works for both sides

Be open about what you need and what's in it for you, then listen to what they need. Ask yourself “would I accept everything I'm asking if I were them?” If not, change it till you would.

3.  Partner with volunteers, not hostages

Mutual success binds businesses together far more tightly than any legal document. So stop trying to lock people in: no-one gives their best when coerced. Instead, only ask for the notice period you genuinely need to make alternative arrangements.

4.  Treat your contract as an aide memoire, not a weapon

Your agreement should serve to remind you what you've both discussed and agreed, not set you up to take the other person to court. Litigation is gambling in wigs: expensive, stressful and uncertain.

5.  Make your legal documents reflect who you are

If you want to be seen as easy to deal with, your contracts and T&Cs need to be easy to deal with too. If you want to be innovative & different, they should be innovative & different. Write in plain English. Explain every change. Make it human.

6.  Raise all concerns or issues as soon as they pop up so they can quickly be resolved

Assign one or two people per business to actively manage the partnership. Get them to meet regularly & discuss all concerns early, so issues get sorted before they become problems.

7.  Build in an internal dispute resolution ladder - and never jump straight to court

As a backstop, include an internal escalation mechanism: first to the respective contract manager’s boss, then to the CEOs. Resist “going legal”. Remember: its gambling in wigs.

8.  Treat your contract as a living document

You don't have a crystal ball. When the assumptions underlying your deal change (and they will), discuss it together openly & then adapt your agreement so both sides remain happy. A contract that no longer reflects reality is just a source of future conflict.

Deciding to be collaborative and not combative in your contracts will feel strange at times. Fighting for every point in a contract is so ingrained that there will be times where you feel that you are missing a trick or are being daft. Don’t be swayed. Stay the course.

Remember, business is a marathon. Enduring success is a long-term thing. And that means it cant be built on one-off short-term victories, it has to be founded on continued relationships.

If you ever feel you’re wavering, just reach out to me. I’ll happily talk through whatever is giving you cause for concern or doubt.

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As a small token of appreciation for your patience and your time, I’d also like to share with you something that is genuinely ‘hot off the press’.

The relationship-first approach is particularly powerful at the point where a business is about to head off towards a new, ambitious goal, whether that’s the launch of a new long-term plan, the integration of an acquisition, the appointment of a new CEO or a new funding round.

And the legal and compliance issues that derail ambitious plans are rarely surprises. They were visible long before they became problems, and they almost always have a broken relationship at the heart of them.

The businesses that land their plans are almost always the ones that pro-actively looked ahead early enough to do something about it.

So I’ve created a short online assessment to help them to that.

It’s called ‘The Long-Term Plan Confidence Check’ and it gives you an honest, section by section picture of how exposed your plan actually is across five areas that tend to matter most: your customers & suppliers, your products & services, your people, your brand, and your governance.

It only takes 10 minutes max, and the results are immediate and specific enough to act on, providing useful food for thought at a pivotal moment for your plan.

You’ll find the ‘Confidence Check’ here: https://andrew-ha4vmuav.scoreapp.com.  And do please let me know if you’ve any thoughts or feedback.  This really is the first time I’ve sent it out into the wild, so I need to know if anything’s not working or landing.

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Right. That’s collaborative agreements. Next, we turn to collaborative disagreements. Starting next week, we’ll explore how to leave the combat alone, and put the relationships first, in your disputes. That sounds counter-intuitive, I know. But that makes it even more powerful.

Have a great week. Let’s go and make ‘legal stuff’ more human, more personal

Andrew