A Business Alliance is Not a Marriage - Part 3

A Business Alliance is Not a Marriage - Part 3 By Victoria Tucker, June 2007 Step 7. Clarify Roles & Responsibilities Along with your project charter (see Step 2), take time to thoroughly flesh out a roles and responsibilities assignment matrix. Who is doing what and to what degree of decision making is critical. Nothing worse than an alliance member coming back and saying “But I thought you were going to do that!”

What to do? Create a RRAM or RACI chart. Clarify decision makers and degree of authority on both sides of the alliance. Do this for each key project associated with the alliance.

RRAM = Roles & Responsibilities Assignment Matrix (click here to download a free template)

RACI = Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed Step 8. Shared Pool of Meaning I’m reminded of a former student of mine who worked for a company created as a joint venture between Hewlett Packard and Kodak in the San Diego region during the mid 90’s. He recounts the story of how during company presentations, there were actually two screens used with two simultaneous PPT slide decks. One screen in the room referenced the vernacular of HP, the other – Kodak. You can imagine how long this company lasted.

What to do? Don’t assume that your definition of Targeted Outcome is the same as your alliance cohort. You need to spend time talking through key points and meanings until each side understands the other. Use stories, anecdotes, or illustrations to convey and codify your meaning. Ask better questions of your counterpart to get at any underlying meaning he or she may have on key topics. Creating a shared pool of meaning only happens when you spend a decent amount of time in one-to-one conversations.

Step 9. Adopt the Author-Edit Rule™

For those in life science industries and high tech R&D enterprises, it’s amazing to me how many brilliant people are sitting waiting for someone else to tell them what to do. “If only my manager would provide the updated roadmap for our department, then I would know what direction to move toward.” “I’m waiting for Samantha to clarify her parameters for the product portfolio.” “Chi-Lu was supposed to fill me in on his plans three weeks ago, but I’m still waiting.” Savvy people twiddling their thumbs equates to loss of productivity and decreased motivation.

Anticipate vs. react.

In alliances, you need to be thinking well ahead rather than hoping all works out well.

Anderson Cooper, reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, stated that as he interviewed city and state officials, there appeared to be a common phrase – they “hoped”. He then went on to say that “vision requires more than hope… it requires a plan.”

There’s an interesting rule we’ve discovered. We call it the Author-Edit Rule™. If you author a plan, a concept, a project or an action and then respectfully submit it to your manager and or your peers for their edit, you’re likely to get much more of a response than if you simply sat back and waited for them to create the thing.

What to do? You be the author of next steps in the alliance project. Is there ambiguity? Lack of clarity in direction? Take a stab at what you believe would be the most reasonable approach to take. Put it on the table with your counterparts and ask them to edit your plan.

At the very least, you’re likely to engage them in a much better conversation than if you simply sat back and waited for someone else to do the work. Also, when you take a more active role in authoring, you end up creating guidelines, and parameters that, in many cases, others end up adopting.



To learn more about this author, visit Jeremy Tucker's Website.

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