Point of a contract

I put a whole lot of work into contracts during my career. More than I care to admit.

It occurred to me that it was a whole lot of time spent on something which rarely had to be used! I was working with partners, customers and suppliers, yet it was rare that we had to enforce anything. I never took anybody to court.

So what’s the point?

Well, it’s all about the planning and the conversations which produce the contract. If we’ve carefully talked through every point and understand each other, then we have a solid agreement. We shake hands to recognize the work we’ve put into it. And our optimism to be able to work together as professionals.

This is exactly why we shouldn’t take contracts lightly. If we haven’t talked through the points which are important to us, then we don’t know if we actually have a meeting of the minds.

What’s important? Well, it might be the nine paragraphs you spent on describing the deliverables and process. Or it might be the 3 words down in paragraph 26 where you state that payment is in advance rather than later.

You get to decide. But do it.

By the way, it strikes me that this is exactly the problem with End User License Agreements that we all skip by when we sign up for a service online. There was never any conversation, and didn’t consider what’s actually important about it. So there’s no meeting of the minds.

Not a great way to build a contract.