For your business to thrive, you need to foster trust with clients while ensuring you’re covered contractually. But how do you do it? In this post, we’ll explore everything you need to know about using your proposal to create trust. 4 tips for better proposals 1. Use your proposal as
It’s easier to learn from the mistakes of others so let me tell you about one of the worst works contracts I’ve ever reviewed. Although just over 6,000 words (10 pages) long, the building contract was incredibly one-sided because of these terms: A right for the client to cancel the
Even without recessions, pandemics and a ‘cost of running a business’ crisis, not everyone can afford to invest in the legal documents to support their business. However, there are five issues to avoid with writing or using contracts. Copying content If you copy and paste your contract content (irrespective of
As you know, I am a big fan of contracts being tools to enhance trust. This post is inspired by Episode 98 of The Hearing (a legal podcast) on Trust and Scepticism for Lawyers, featuring Dr Larry Richard, Ann Rainhart and Michael Callier. What is trust? Dr Larry Richard says
What is a cognitive bias? These are shortcuts to help us act and think efficiently, and (in the past) to survive. They also help us understand each other better. Sometimes these are referred to as the curse of knowledge. Not all of these shortcuts are based on logic! There are
The Dalton Company, based in Toronto, Canada, have trust as a core value in their business. I was introduced to them by Stephen MR Covey, author of the Speed of Trust. This what they said about how they do business (when I interviewed them for CICES back in 2017). Trust-based
Reinforcing my experience The latest Arcadis Global Disputes Report (2022) confirms a few of the experiences I have as a contracts lawyer: contracts are rarely without errors – in 2021 errors or omissions in the contract documents were the second biggest cause of global disputes contracts reviews are worth the
What are the alternatives to retention? In my view, the retention is effectively ransom money and the parties rarely know who actually owns it. It can be kidnapped and held as a form of leverage. Its two key purposes are: security against defective work or security against insolvency within the
Back in 2017 I read Speed of Trust by Stephen MR Covey and came across this story: In the construction industry, which is typically very ‘win/lose’ and adversarial between contractors and subcontractors, Shea Homes decided to create a different model. Among the many steps they took, they renamed their subs
Is collaboration ever going to be the norm, or will it always be niche? A panel at the World Commerce and Contracting EMEA Summit 2022 debated this issue. The drivers in favour of collaboration were: The pandemic effect. The events of 2020 forced many clients to collaborate with their suppliers