Collaborations rarely fail over science. They fail over six recurring problems, all of which are cheap to prevent in the first month and expensive to fix in the last.
One: assumed availability
- Planning as if the partner has full-time staff on the project.
- In reality teaching loads and part-time students dominate the calendar.
- Prevention: ask for actual hours per week per person, in writing.
Two: undefined authorship
- Nobody raises it until a draft exists, when the conversation is loaded.
- Prevention: settle criteria and order before data collection begins.
Three: a timeline that ignored approvals
- Ethics, permits and institutional sign-off take months.
- Prevention: ask how long approvals historically take at their institution.
Four: a budget built in one economy
- Under-funding the local side creates dependence rather than partnership.
- Prevention: have the local partner build their own budget lines.
Five: everything resting on one relationship
- The individual who drove it moves on and nothing is documented.
- Prevention: framework agreement plus two contacts on each side.
Six: silence read as agreement
- Concerns raised indirectly were not recognised as concerns.
- Prevention: written summaries after meetings and individual follow-ups.
One thing worth remembering
All six are preventable in the first month and nearly unfixable in the last.
The first month is when everyone is optimistic and nobody wants to raise awkward operational questions — which is exactly when raising them costs nothing, and makes it the single highest-return hour of work in the whole collaboration.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
What causes collaborations to fail?
Six recurring problems rather than science — all cheap to prevent in the first month and expensive to fix in the last.
What is the assumed-availability failure?
Planning as if the partner has full-time staff, when teaching loads and part-time students dominate — prevented by asking for actual hours per week in writing.
Why do timelines fail?
Because ethics, permits and institutional sign-off take months — prevented by asking how long approvals historically take at that institution.
What goes wrong with budgets?
They are built in one economy, and under-funding the local side creates dependence rather than partnership — prevented by having the local partner build their own lines.
When are these failures preventable?
In the first month, when everyone is optimistic and nobody wants to raise awkward operational questions — exactly when raising them costs nothing.
