Collaborations and joint ventures are a wonderful way to get projects finished at a rapid pace. You get to share the load, pool your talents, ideas and creativity. The result is often an end product that's much better than what any individual could have done by themselves.
Aside from the benefits of pooling talent to get a job done lickety-split, collaborations are a huge opportunity for personal growth.
You get to work alongside people you respect and admire. You get to see how they tackle workflows and problems. It's a little like getting a window into their world. It opens up new possibilities and at the end of it, you have relationships that are much stronger and closer than you had before.
Unfortunately, not all collaborations and joint ventures end up that way. Some are difficult, frustrating and can lead to broken relationships and resentment. In fairness, they tend to be fewer, but the sad truth is that some collaborations can be a huge time suck with little to no reward.
The question is, "Why is that some collaborations succeed and others don't?"
Best intentions aside (because no one sets out for a collaboration to fail), a lot of it has to do with how you set the collaboration up in the first place. You need a set of shared expectations - operating instructions if you will - that means everyone knows how to communicate and work together well.
To help tackle this subject I turn to my old friend, Gill Tiney of BeCollaboration. Gill has worked as a business coach for many years and more recently partnered up with Erkan Ali to establish a set of workshops up and down the country that provide a platform for collaborations.
If anyone knew how to set up the hottest collaborations it was sure to be Gill.
In this episode, Gill and I discuss:
- Why you should say "yes" to collaborations and what you stand to gain.
- The faulty thinking that many people have about collaborations and how to think about them differently.
- Why some collaborations fail and others succeed.
- How to set up your collaboration the right way so the odds are stacked in your favour.
- What to do if something goes wrong and your fellow collaborators say or do something that's difficult.
To help you get the very best from this episode make sure you also pick up my free cheat sheet:
Rules of Engagement for Collaborations and Joint Ventures
It's twenty-five quick tips to help you get the most from every collaboration and joint venture. They're easy to implement and will help you avoid some of the nasty problems that ineffective working relationships can often cause.