When a collaboration doesn't work: closing it well

Not every collaboration works out. Some fizzle halfway, some get finished and leave the feeling that it wasn't worth it, and the occasional one goes sideways before it even starts. That happens in any work between two parties who didn't know each other beforehand, and it says very little about either the shop or the creator. What does say something is how it gets closed.

First, work out what actually failed

Before drawing conclusions it helps to separate four things that usually get mixed together:

• The fit. The business and the person making the content didn't share an audience or a tone, and no amount of extra effort fixes that.
• The expectations. Each side pictured something different because it was never said out loud.
• The execution. The idea was good and the result was so-so: bad day, poor light, rushed, an edit that never quite lands.
• The timing. The idea was reasonable but the business was swamped, or the creator didn't really have the hours to do it properly.

These are very different problems and they lead to different decisions. An execution problem is worth repeating better next time; a fit problem isn't repeated, it's accepted.

Closing it without bad feeling

The worst thing you can do is let it die quietly: stop replying, keep stalling and let the other side work it out alone. It's the easiest option and the most expensive one, because in a small area everyone runs into everyone eventually.

The sensible version is simple:

• Say it early, in a clear message, without long excuses.
• Honour whatever was agreed up to that point, even if the result disappoints. If it was agreed, it gets done.
• Decide together what happens to anything already published: it stays, it comes down, or it stays without being pushed any further.
• Don't turn it into a list of grievances. "This hasn't worked the way we hoped", plus one or two concrete reasons, is enough.
• Don't make it public. Airing it fixes nothing and closes doors for both sides.

And thank them for their time, even if the outcome was weak. The other person put hours in too.

What there is to learn

A collaboration that goes badly is where the useful lessons are, as long as you look honestly. Some questions that tend to give uncomfortable, valuable answers:

• Was there a conversation about what each side expected, or was it assumed?
• Was it clear who decided what? Who chose the idea, who reviewed it, who published it.
• Was the deadline realistic for both sides, given the day-to-day of running a shop?
• Was the other party chosen because of a real match, or because they were available?
• Was something asked for that was never properly explained?

Almost always the failure shows up in the conversation beforehand, not in the finished content. That's good news: the conversation beforehand is the easiest thing to change.

One bad one doesn't invalidate the format

It is tempting to conclude that working with creators doesn't work, or that shops don't know what they want. One experience isn't enough to know. A collaboration is a test with a lot of variables: the person, the timing, the idea, the format, the day it was filmed.

Change one of those and the result can be completely different. Writing off the whole format after one attempt is like closing a section of the shop because one product didn't sell.

The reasonable thing is to give it a fair run, with different people and with the terms adjusted to what you learned, before deciding it isn't for you.

A practical way to finish: when you close one that went badly, write three lines on what you would do differently. That's all it takes. Those three lines are exactly what you should put on the table at the start of the next conversation.