With business coach, trainer and facilitator Claudie Plen (pictured) of Creative Alchemy in conversation with Dub Studios and Together Design on November 15, 2007.

With the end product closely tied to self-esteem and identity, it’s no surprise that creative partnerships are intense affairs. Control issues and vision clashes abound and the industry divorce rate is high. The good news is that none of these problems is insurmountable. Claudie Plen says working out shared values, understanding different working styles and defining your brand are key. What’s different about creative partnerships? When two creative personalities get together in a commercial environment are the challenges and issues they face unique?

Often partners in creative businesses find themselves in conflict without realising the source of the unrest. Often each partner has a different value set, believes different things to be important. Personality clashes can affect any partnership but where creative personalities are involved problems can arise due to the nature of the creative process. A creative product or output is usually closely tied to self-esteem, self-image and identity - creative people often define themselves through their work, so clashes of opinion can have a serious and damaging impact in these areas. Control issues can also loom large owing to the personal nature of creative vision, and a vision clash can feel impossible to solve.

Even if there is unity and shared vision, partners can be challenged by different working styles. Do they work best in the evening, or the morning? In solitude or creative chaos and collaboration? Does constant communication help or hinder their process and does delegation and problem sharing appeal or threaten a sense of control? These are practical issues which, if overlooked can create discord and resentment, but if explored may also determine the outcome of decisions regarding environment, workspace and staffing levels.

If one partner is creative and the other business oriented, conflict can occur due to differences in agendas, priorities and perspectives, the creative not appreciating the pressure of deadlines or commercial targets and feeling the threat to his or her creative vision posed by financial restraints. Equally the sales and commerce oriented partner might feel financial imperatives are being ignored, that projects aren’t commercially viable and that creativity is indulged and over-prioritised. All of this comes down to a clash of values, goals, ambitions and objectives, which is often compounded by a lack of effective communication and knowledge sharing.

So what can you do?

Things to consider (obvious maybe but often overlooked):

1. Shared values (ask, what’s important to me/us about our business?)

2. Are your personalities well matched?

3. Are there conflicts between creative and commercial targets?

4. Different working styles – can we find a way to work that suits everyone?

5. Different ambitions and goals (what do you want to have happen as a result of being in partnership/business together? Is your vision similar? Your financial ambitions? Creating a common objective for the business is essential.

6. Creative personalities often lead to issues around control, creative vision, self-esteem. How can you sort any problems and disagreements which arise? Develop a communication/problem solving strategy before it is needed.

7. How will you balance different creative agendas ?

8. Equal or agreed representation within the business. Make sure your legal situation gets sorted straight away, however well you know each other.

9. How (how often) do you communicate with each other? Make time each day (ideally a couple of times a day) to catch up with each other and discuss what’s happening.

10. Spend time goal setting. Make sure your goals are specific and measurable, based on shared values, and you have an agreed time frame within which to achieve them.