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You are interested in making your business relationships generate more value, right?

Wouldn’t you agree that having a collaborative business relationship with the people you do business with is important, if not critical?

For many years I have been trying to win projects and then successfully deliver them as a consultant and business leader internationally. The key area that I have learned to focus on is developing, nurturing and maintaining relationships with the people I have worked for and with.

For some of us, this aspect of the business comes more naturally, while for others we have to work at it.

Well, now we have a framework to help guide you and me on how to develop collaborative business relationships with other people and organizations. In October 2010, the British Standard Institute – BSi, released its BS 11000 Collaborative Business Relationships – Part 1: A Framework Specification.

To some people, creating a specification for how to develop collaborative relationships may seem like a mechanism for “soft business.” That may be true up to a point, but if we look at the 3 words in the title “collaborative business relationship”, especially collaboration, maybe it helps get past that point to a point.

Let me share with you how I think you can use this specification to create mutual value for both you and your collaborative business partner by breaking down the phrase “collaborative business relationships.”

What do we understand by collaboration?

Sometimes people confuse collaboration with communication. Communication is part of collaboration.

Generally speaking, collaboration is when people agree to work together to achieve an agreed result. Based on this, there are four parts to collaboration happening:

• Communication: talk about what we are going to do.
• Contract: agreement on how we will behave and operate
• Action: what we do to comply.
• Result: value creation that we could not have done alone: ​​the reason to collaborate

The other two words in the title “business relationship” can be seen in the context of a strategy map and the two internal perspectives: learning and growth (organization, people, and data), this is the “relationship” and they are intangible assets. The second perspective is Internal (Management Processes) this is the “business” and they are tangible assets.

You are part of a company that has both tangible and intangible assets that can be used as resources to support and deliver a project, new products and services that you have decided to develop and deliver with another group of people or organization.

Your tangible “business” assets will include the physical buildings and equipment along with the multitude of business processes you use to perform your work. Leveraging and reusing these so you can efficiently and effectively integrate them with your trading partner will save you time and money and increase your joint ability to deliver successfully.

The intangible “relationship” assets, which are your Organization’s culture, leadership, alignment and teamwork; the People who work with you: their skills, knowledge and experience; Along with the information management systems you use, it covers the perspective of learning and growing your business. By the way, this usually accounts for 70% of the value of your business and will have the biggest impact on whether or not you are successful.

Realizing these intangible and tangible assets is crucial and can be used collaboratively to deliver value propositions and create added value that you and your partner have agreed upon and established as a result.

I think creating a framework to help you integrate these tangible and intangible assets together with another organization, in a collaborative way, is a good start in the right direction, what do you think?

So what is BS 11000?

Well, the standard is divided into three phases and includes eight stages. These are listed below by phase:

1. Strategic Phase: Stage 1 Awareness (Clause 3); Stage 2 Knowledge (Clause 4) and Stage 3 Internal Assessment (Clause 5)
2. Commitment Stage: Stage 4 Selection of partners (Clause 6); Stage 5 Working together (Clause 7); Stage 6 Value Creation (Clause 8)
3. management stage: Stage 7 Stay Together (Clause 9) and Stage 8 Exit Strategy (Clause 10)

Each of these respective phases and stages are captured within a Relationship Management Plan (RMP). The RMP is the end result in document form that evolves as you progress through the various stages. The RMP can initially be used as the reference document within your business to record corporate processes, especially those that already exist. This corporate RMP becomes a template for any specific project and future business relationship.

The scope of BS 11000 is to help you identify, develop and manage collaborative business relationships between discrete organisations, functions and groups that you have identified. You can apply it to any size of organization and you will need to configure it accordingly to follow the type of relationship levels you are focusing on: small to large, simple to complex so that you improve operational performance and develop relationships that add value for you.

BS 11000 Internships

I have outlined the 8 steps below to make you realize how easily you could apply BS 11000 to your business and potential partnerships.

1. Stage 1 Awareness: Clause 3 helps you to consider and develop your corporate policy, identify the processes that form a foundation for you to embed collaborative work as an active process that adds value and becomes part of your organization’s culture.
2. Knowledge of stage 2: Clause 4 helps you focus on discovering the knowledge that exists in the face of an identified opportunity so that you can create a business case and benefit analysis. This is similar to a gap analysis with a Go/No Go action at the end.
3. Internal evaluation of stage 3: Clause 5 provides you with guidance on how to complete a gap analysis regarding your current ability and maturity to successfully participate in a collaborative initiative. Although this is Stage 3, it’s worth considering doing this first.
4. Practice 4 Selection of partners: Clause 6 Now that you have strategically decided to move forward, you will need to create a process to identify, evaluate and select the appropriate partners. From my experience, I have seen this done differently, if at all within the same company with varying degrees of success.
5. Stage 5 Working together: Clause 7 Once you have selected a partner(s), you need to ensure you have the correct operational structure, governance and RACI (Accountable, Accountable, Inform, Consult) to effectively deliver the business case you developed in the Stage 2
6. Stage 6 Value creation: Clause 8 needs to keep the relationship alive, dynamic and beneficial so that it continues to deliver sustainable value by implementing the appropriate processes and approaches.
7. Stage 7 Staying together: Clause 9 After spending time and effort developing this relationship, you must measure and monitor the relationship so that its performance is fully optimized.
8. Stage 8 Exit Strategy: Clause 10 everything has a lifespan and should be prepared to be able to go offline efficiently when appropriate, making sure to ensure business continuity and the “open door” for future business relationships

As you have probably realized, this is not a step-by-step process, but an iterative one as lessons are learned, opportunities present themselves, and new information is obtained.

The benefits of working collaboratively

Can you imagine using this framework and how it can successfully help you create higher value and more collaborative business relationships?

Implementing this framework will increase over time your ability to deliver joint efficiencies, innovate and explore new ways of working, and enhance your organization’s culture into a more open and transparent business, empowering your people to be more challenging and focused. in performance.

BS 11000 is not a “silver bullet” for business relationships. It is a framework for integrating your tangible and intangible assets collaboratively and when applied in conjunction with people training and development, supported by the appropriate collaboration technology; You will be able to create high-value, viable and strategic business relationships both internally and externally.