Today we will talk about collaboration agreements, and to do so we will refer to the following quote written by Schiller in one of his many letters to his friend Goethe, with whom he maintained a long and, from an artistic point of view, productive friendship from the day they met:
I can never part from you without you having planted something in me. And I am glad that, because of how much you give me, I can set you and all your inner wealth in motion.
Schiller
Both devoted themselves to defining the shape of the new German theater; to a certain extent, their relationship allowed them to move forward with a shared idea, as is often the case with what we now know as the startup ecosystem.
The analogy isn’t very good, I know, but it serves the purpose of these lines well, explaining why it is always necessary, in any professional relationship, to think about collaboration agreements if it is a joint project, or partners if there is a partnership involved.
Goethe, reflecting on his friendship with Schiller, later said: “There appear two friends who always make each other grow as long as they carry nourishment in their breasts at the right moment.” Both quotes, from Schiller and Goethe, poetically reflect the ideal companion we should all seek when facing a new—or old, because not everything in this world has to be new—personal or professional challenge, as there is no difference between the two. However, this is not always enough, or rather, even if it is, in the professional sphere, emphasizing the word “professional,” it is advisable (if not necessary) to take many other things into account (perhaps also in the personal sphere, but that deserves another kind of reflection).
When embarking on any project, and preferably at the outset, we tend to associate with those with whom we feel closest, most confident, and most familiar—in short, those who share our values or visions—without considering that, over time, both may change, expand, become more nuanced, or even contradict each other, and not always at the same speed or in the same way. When choosing our professional colleagues, we tend to apply the same criteria as in our private lives, and while this is logical, and certainly desirable, in our professional lives we need something more, something that, rather than calling them “partners,” we could describe as Partners (with a capital P, without quotation marks, and in English, much to the chagrin of purists).
Partners are precisely those people, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or collaborators who, regardless of other things, accompany us in our professional project, and as such, said project must be approached primarily from a “professional” framework, that is, with a focus and a view primarily on the project and its professionalization and not on the type of personal relationship, a relationship that is undoubtedly fundamental (just as the “purpose” is) and without it, I am convinced that nothing can work, but that relationship, while it gives it content, should not be the framework that defines the project itself. Perhaps it is what sets the tone and elevates it from a project to a purpose, but it is not what sets the pace or determines the “rules of the game.” We must demand from our friends as friends, from our partners as professionals (and if they are also friends, which is not incompatible, so much the better), it is simply a matter of knowing what level of play we are at.
Our partners can be our best friends, colleagues, family members, or simply colleagues on a project. They are not mutually exclusive, nor are we always given the choice. What we thought would turn out one way may turn out another, but if we always maintain a professional perspective in our professional project, which is professional for a reason, it will be easier for us to manage conflict, a conflict that is inevitably always latent but, of course, it is one thing for it to be latent and another for it to erupt at any moment.
The well-known actor and theater director Yoshi Oida once wrote about his fellow actors: “Sometimes I have to work with someone I don’t like. Maybe they’re a liar, spiteful, and selfish. However, we have to perform well together, so I have to find some kind of positive relationship between us. It is obvious that, with this spirit, you almost always find it, and that results in the best “team performance.”
From a legal standpoint, the tools for partially “professionalizing” relationships with our partners are collaboration agreements or partnership agreements in all their forms.
Among other things, they regulate expectations, define roles, set objectives, organize the form of governance, establish relevant decisions, regulate the entry of third parties, and offer mechanisms to break the “Partnership” in the least painful way possible when necessary, convenient, or desirable.
There is much to be said about this type of agreement, and I hope to do so soon. In any case, if one thing should be clear, it is that in our professional activities, with our partners or collaborators, as well as friends, colleagues, and coworkers, we must be, above all, partners.
Not easy, but very rewarding, and easily resolved thanks to the guarantees provided by the collaboration agreements.
