Partnering and collaboration are words that get thrown around in business a lot. Like many things, it sounds great; the trouble is the execution.
This theme came up as I worked on this month’s Uniquely Pittsburgh on the EQT Children’s Theater Festival.
It’s expensive to bring artists from around the world to Pittsburgh. That’s why Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Pamela Komar, who books these performances, tries to partner with other festivals and art centers.
For example, the festival’s most adult show “Hansel and Gretel” — it’s the original story — is from Komar’s favorite theater group, Teatret Gruppe 38, in Denmark. The show is not only stopping in Pittsburgh, but also swinging by the Ottawa International Children’s Festival in Canada.
It’s a similar story for many of the other shows. Collaboration and partnering is the name of the game. By sharing cost and making it worthwhile for the performance company to travel overseas, Pittsburgh is able to attract better acts.
Find the right partners
The problem in business, however, is that you can’t just decide overnight to partner and collaborate. It takes work.
First, it’s tricky to determine who are the right partners. Both parties need to benefit, if not equally then as close to equal as possible. Also, you need to make sure you have complementing skills. There’s no point in partnering with a copy of your own organization.
And it won’t be as cut and dry as working with other children’s festivals. You might need to look within the industry at companies who could be considered competitors or even far outside your industry to an organization that doesn’t even touch your field.
This is where service providers like your accountants, bankers and lawyers, or even local chambers of commerce or other business connectors, can help. These organizations talk to your colleagues all the time. They might know who would be a good fit, and it’s part of their job to facilitate connections.
Define the ground rules
The other thing I hear from business owners and service professionals is that, just like between business owners, when you form a partnership the terms and expectations need to be spelled out clearly from the beginning — in writing.
It sounds simple, but the more you define your goals upfront, the better chance you have of reaching them. By planning for worst-case scenarios, you limit the chances of those coming to fruition.
Once you’ve defined as many of the terms as possible, the lines of communication need to stay open as problems crop up — and they will crop up.
Regularly review whether the partnership is still benefitting both parties as intended. If not, then what can you do to fix it? The last resort is dissolving the partnership, so again it’s important to have systems in place upfront for what that procedure would look like.
When you’re used to working alone to outdo your competitors, it’s not always easy to open up to other organizations. But in today’s business world, many companies are finding that by working together they can get much further.
