Ed Weeks shares three rules for safe collaboration: write down economic terms first, agree on the minimum commercial understanding before any work starts, and clarify who gets deliverables and when decisions happen before handing off to another party.
The first operating standard is this: write the economics before the introductions. Not a complicated agreement, just enough written clarity to prevent the commercial meaning from changing later. The second operating standard is to agree the floor before shared work or shared lists. The floor is the minimum commercial understanding that makes collaboration safe enough to begin. Before lists move, before time is committed, before introductions multiply, everyone should know what the shared work means. The third operating standard is to protect the return path before a soft handoff. A soft handoff can be useful, but it cannot mean the owner disappears into someone else's process. The return path answers who comes back, what comes back, and when the owner can make a decision.
