“Troubles at work” is a common phrase for everyone engaged in economic activities, whether employed or in entrepreneurship. People often act as significant irritants to each other, making the importance of formalized partnership agreements for business co-owners hard to overestimate. But first, let’s briefly run through the algorithm our body uses when exposed to irritants and what these reactions can lead to.
In evolution, we inherited a structure in our brain from reptiles called the reticular formation — a complex network of neurons permeating the brainstem. This system regulates conscious states, attention, wakefulness, and sleep. Like a radar antenna rotating in a circle, it constantly monitors incoming sensory signals around the clock. When the system detects a signal of some importance or danger, it immediately awakens our brain and body within a hundredths of a second. In response to an external stimulus, an arousal reaction occurs in the body: the level of wakefulness, attention, readiness for action, and overall physiological activity increases.
A cat sleeping peacefully next to us on the couch while we watch TV doesn’t hear the TV sounds — they don’t interest her. But make a rustling noise by crumpling a piece of paper, and immediately, her “ears are up.” Rustling could mean a mouse to hunt, another cat to defend the territory from, or a more serious predator to flee from. The cat attentively looks in the direction of the noise, in a state of anticipation of one of these scenarios. Physiologically, the cat’s body is charged and almost ready to act: hunt, fight, or flee. The adaptogen hormone cortisol controls this readiness in the human body. Under cortisol’s influence, the blood thickens to prevent blood loss in case of injury. The body increases blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration to push the thickened blood to the muscles, brain, and sensory organs. In the internal organs, blood vessels constrict, diverting blood to the systems responsible for immediate survival. All internal organs lose blood: digestion and reproduction—are all postponed; the main goal is survival. Once the cat assesses the situation and finds no danger, it lowers its head and closes its eyes, but one ear keeps twitching, “listening to the airwaves” in anticipation of the same sound pattern. The organism is stressed as if the driver is pressing both the brake and gas pedals simultaneously.
Next, the reticular formation sends signals to the amygdalae—brain structures responsible for decision-making. The action is taken if there is enough information to decide whether to flee or fight. But if there is insufficient information and the irritant remains, the amygdalae induce a state of anxiety and fear until the danger fully manifests, allowing for a clear action.
If the state of anxiety persists, prolonged exposure to elevated cortisol reduces immunity, leaving the body unprotected. Then follow hypertension, diabetes, psoriasis, gastritis, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, cystitis, prostatitis, cancer—all these diseases are largely the result of decreased immunity.
In case of a conflict with a partner, business co-owners without a partnership agreement find themselves in a state of uncertainty. There are no agreed principles, rules, or algorithms for resolution. They haven’t pre-agreed on how to act in such circumstances. “Troubles at work” is an indicator of being in a state of anxiety. How long can it last? Years—people go around unable to ask a question or, conversely, start openly conflicting without understanding because the body demands: “Do something, release the pressure, or I’ll die.”
A partnership agreement, contract, or whatever you call it—a document that is the result of conducting a partnership arrangement—should clearly describe the algorithm of the safety valve, which allows timely and correctly releasing the pressure. Partnership without friction and stress is impossible. However, they can vary greatly and can be managed. The hare running from the fox is in cortisol-adrenaline stress because it’s about to be eaten. It has no clear goal; it runs “from,” not caring where—left or right—it just needs to escape. The fox is also stressed but in dopamine-norepinephrine stress because it runs “to”—it has a specific goal, specifically this hare. It runs to food, to victory; it anticipates it. Norepinephrine, when meeting cortisol, has one important property—it restores immunity to a baseline level.
If a person experiences anxious stress about their business, their future in it, they eventually start setting goals in other areas: running a marathon, completing an Ironman, etc., which actually lowers cortisol and raises dopamine due to the emergence of motivation. But in doing so, they often distance themselves from both the business and the partner associated with the stress.
Summary: The ability to shift relationships from the plane of anxiety and conflict to the goal of quickly overcoming it is a task best solved with the help of experienced professionals. Agreeing and recording specific, measurable business goals in a partnership agreement, including the goal of quickly resolving disputes in an agreed-upon manner, should make your business Teflon-like—conflicts and other debris should not stick to it. If so, a partnership agreement could be the best investment in long, productive business relationships and personal health.
