7. Starting the cooperation

What this is about

The agreement is signed or the arrangement made. Now the work itself begins, and that transition does not happen by itself. Shaping it deliberately gives the cooperation a beginning that everyone can refer back to later.

The guiding question

How does everyone know that it counts from now on?

Many cooperations begin imperceptibly. One email follows another, someone creates a folder, the first tasks get done, and at some point everyone is in the middle of it. That has a cost. Nobody quite knows which commitments apply from when, who is responsible for what, or where the shared work actually happens. A beginning that everyone notices is therefore not a formality. It marks the step from agreement to acting together and gives everyone a point from which the commitments apply.

What helps now

A kick-off with everyone present. The first meeting should include everyone who will contribute, not only those who negotiated. Its purpose is less to inform than to meet. Each person says what they bring and what they expect from the cooperation. It helps if a manageable task that nobody can do alone follows soon afterwards. After it, everyone knows how the others deliver, not just what they promised. Why tasks like this bring people together is described on The click and its conditions.

Roles that are spoken aloud. Someone coordinates, someone decides, someone stands in when a person is absent. The agreement often names only the parties, not the people who act for them. At the start, roles are assigned to individuals and made known to all. A role says what someone is responsible for. When the managing director takes the minutes herself for once, everyone sees that no ranking is meant.

A shared workspace. The cooperation needs a place where its current state can be found: documents, decisions, open points, dates. Online this is a shared workspace; on site it may be a room with a wall of plans. What matters is that there is one place, not five, and that everyone has access from the first day.

Rules for synchronous and asynchronous work. It needs to be settled what is decided in conversation and what in writing, which channel is for urgent matters and which for thoughts that can wait, and how quickly people usually reply. Such rules seem petty until they are missing. They relieve everyone of guessing whether silence means agreement, overload or lack of interest.

Duties that now apply in full. Duties to have regard to the other side’s interests already applied during negotiations (Section 311(2) German Civil Code, BGB). With the start, the duties of performance fall due, and the duty to take account of the other party’s rights and interests (Section 241(2) BGB) acquires a concrete object: the shared work. This includes data. Those who jointly determine the purposes and means of processing personal data, for example in a shared contact list or a joint platform, are joint controllers under Article 26 GDPR. They must then set out in an arrangement who fulfils which obligations towards the people concerned. If one side processes data only on behalf of and on the instructions of the other, Article 28 GDPR applies instead. The start is the right moment to settle this, before the first list is shared.

The typical mistake

People treat the beginning as done because the contract is signed. Roles then stay with the negotiators, the work drifts into private inboxes and folders, and the people who actually work together only get to know each other when the first conflict arrives. A beginning can be made up for later, but it takes more effort than a timely one.

Online

Online, the beginning has to be more explicit than on site, because no building or meeting room takes care of it in passing. Nobody is assigned a desk. So on day one everyone needs access, an entry in the list of participants and a first task.

The kick-off works best live online, with cameras on and long enough for everyone to speak once at length. A short round in which each person says where they are joining from and what they are currently working on replaces the encounter in the corridor. Advice on sound, image and roles in conversation is on Live online.

Anyone who cannot get into the workspace on day one will work somewhere else on day two, and that place tends to stay. Setting up access also settles who owns the accounts and who administers them, which avoids disputes when the cooperation ends.

Online, the rules for synchronous and asynchronous work are the real working basis, because most of the work happens asynchronously. How the two are best combined is shown on Synchronous and asynchronous.

Law in this phase

Cooperation as a legal relationship: which duties apply alongside the agreed performance, and why they carry particular weight in long-term cooperation.
Data and rights: joint controllership under Article 26 GDPR, processing on behalf of others, and rights in jointly created results.
The cooperation agreement: what an agreement can say about roles, workspace and communication when no company is formed.