What this is about
Once the need is clear, the decision follows. It is more than a yes to working together: it determines how much of your own goals you open up to the joint work and what you hold on to. In organisations, it also means that everyone whose consent is needed has given it.
The guiding question
Which of my goals am I willing to let the goals of others shape?
Cooperation changes those involved. Whoever acts with others needs their actions, and their actions follow goals of their own. These goals act back on mine: they limit and shape what I want to achieve. This does not happen once but throughout the collaboration, because the goals of the others change too. Anyone who does not want that should buy rather than cooperate. The decision to cooperate is therefore a decision to let oneself be changed, to a certain extent. You should know that extent before you meet others.
What helps now
Name what is not negotiable. Every side has points it cannot or will not give up: the core of its own offer, certain values, a degree of independence, a limit on risk. Knowing these points in advance lets you be open in conversations without losing yourself. If you do not know them, you will discover them in the first dispute.
Name the open ground as well. A decision that holds on to everything is not a decision to cooperate. If you know where you are flexible, you can give partners real room for their goals. That decides whether they feel recognised as partners or merely used as means.
Have the decision backed internally. People who cooperate on behalf of an organisation rarely act alone. In an association, the board decides, often within what the general meeting has laid down. In a German private limited company (GmbH), the managing directors can bind the company externally (Section 37(2) Limited Liability Companies Act (GmbHG)), but internally they are bound by the limits set in the articles or by shareholder resolutions (Section 37(1) GmbHG). Many articles require shareholder consent for long-term commitments. In a civil-law partnership (GbR), transactions beyond the ordinary course of business require a resolution of all partners (Section 715(2) German Civil Code (BGB)). Obtaining the necessary consent early means negotiating later with backing.
Name the person. The decision is only made once it is clear in whose diary the cooperation gets hours. You also need to settle what that person may commit to without checking back, and what budget they control.
The typical mistake
The decision is only half made. Cooperation is offered externally, while internally it is unclear whether the shareholders, the board or the team really want it. The partners end up negotiating with someone who cannot commit, and they find out late. Or consent is obtained, but only for a vague “let’s talk to them”. When the cooperation becomes concrete, the internal dispute breaks out, and the partners outside witness it.
Within companies, the same mistake appears when shareholders start a new line of business together without clarifying who will set aside how much of their own plans for it.
Online
Internal decisions can be prepared well online. A short paper naming the goal, what is not negotiable and where there is room to move can be commented on asynchronously before everyone meets in a session live online. The session is then left with only the contested points, and participants have had time to think their objections through rather than voice them on the spot. How the two modes fit together is described under Synchronous and asynchronous.
For the formal resolution, the rules of the organisation apply. In a German registered association (Verein), the notice convening a general meeting can provide for members to take part electronically. Meetings held entirely online (which the statute calls virtual meetings) require a resolution of the members (Section 32(2) BGB), unless the articles provide otherwise. In a GmbH, no meeting is needed if all shareholders agree in text form to the resolution or to voting in text form (Section 48(2) GmbHG).
Law in this phase
- Shareholders and management: Who has to consent internally before management binds the company.
- Decisions and meetings: How resolutions are passed on site, hybrid and online.
- Shareholders among themselves: What applies when the shareholders themselves cooperate.