Create Agreements

Any productive work relationship operates on the basis of certain “agreements.” By agreements, I’m not referring to “what” we’re working on, but on “how” we work together. Examples of agreements include anything we feel is important—like the pace at which we work, the level of detail we go into, the specific areas we choose to emphasize, the type of communication we engage in with other departments, people, customers AND EACH OTHER, etc. The trouble is, we rarely set up these agreements verbally. We simply work together, go along, and are then surprised and upset when we find that we’re obviously working from a different set of agreements. Things aren’t so bad when we’re working with someone who is very much like us, but this is rarely the case. Often we’re working with people who have different ways of working and assumptions about the right way to go about things than we do, and if we don’t talk about our agreements, and come to some kind of agreement on our agreements, well, we’re leaving ourselves open to frustration, a ball getting dropped somewhere, the potential for damaged relationships, and the possibility of lost business.

How to Create Agreements:

Creating agreements means to discuss what we mutually need from one another in regards to how we work together. Through declaration of intent (“My intent in initiating this conversation is to be sure we are working and interacting off the same set of “interaction blueprints”) and mutual disclosure, get them to tell you the secrets of working well with them (e.g. better times of day to approach them, preferred method of communication, preferred mode of collaboration—“do you prefer to brainstorm together and think aloud, or do you work better by doing your own thinking first, and then getting together to compare notes,” how it’s best to approach them on challenging work assignments or issues, etc.). You’ll also be sharing your preferences, so it’s a two-way street.

Tip:

As part of creating an agreement, also decide together how you will handle the violation of an agreement (we’re human- something will be violated unintentionally at some point). That way you have a game-plan if things get tricky- a game plan that you have created together!

Whether you’re thinking about a relationship with a co-worker, boss, employee, or even a customer with whom you’re collaborating, creating agreements is a smart way to ensure things get done well and important business relationships are strengthened in the process.