My monthly contract tips have been reflecting on ways to create more positive content. Find out more about the A to Z of great contract content:
- Accurate to safeguard your business
- Brief covering who, what, why, when, how and how much
- Clear at the very least on scope, price and time (see this post on defining scope and quality)
- Digital business has changed and so should your contracts (even if they aren’t fully smart contracts)
- Empowering your whole staff to take control of (read, understand & use) your contracts
- Flexible so your contract can flex to meet uncertainty (plan for the future)
- Game-changing to change behaviours and/or change the game
- Helpful ie tools to help you do business
- Innovative, although if you don’t want to be revolutionary, start simply
- Joyful – use your contracts to change how your clients and suppliers feel about doing business with you (see this post about joyful values)
- Kind clauses to build trust, create positive side-effects and lead to success.
- Loveable by terms that weave in equity and empathy (you could even treat them as love letters to your clients)
- Magnanimous aka being generous to someone especially if they are in a worse bargaining position
- Noteworthy in the sense of something worth reading
- Outcome-based which means you trust your supplier to meet your objectives
- Pragmatic ie good enough to set you up for success
- Quick to read, understand and use
- Radical in the sense of creating far-reaching change
- Simple whether that is radical simplicity or just a little simpler (make it accessible, clear and simple)
- Trust throughout your contracting process
- User-Friendly because a contract that cannot be used is pretty pointless
- Visual to get attention, convey meaning and simplify; some examples of my visual contracts
- Win-Win creating balanced contracts from the start, to build trust and reduce negotiation cycle times
- Xenial your contract should be about giving gifts to strangers
- Yours so it fully reflects your values and brand
- Zen represented by togetherness and collaboration.
