Conflicts between partners
Where conflicts between partners come from and how to resolve them short of court: the limit of acceptable risk, differing views, disregard for each other's time, silence instead of conversation. Real stories of co-owner conflicts are examined together with ways to resolve them, including mediation and the partnership session.
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What really stands behind the words 'if anything goes wrong, we'll go to court'?
The phrase hides three separate steps: a court ruling, its enforcement and the bank debiting the money, and at each one the outcome depends on a judge, an enforcement officer and a bank the partners never chose. Most disputes never get there, so the law works as a shadow.
Original: Site blog
Where does each partner's limit of acceptable risk lie?
It differs for everyone, from mortgaging a house to dealing with criminals to save the business, and it is most dangerous to discuss it first in a crisis. The author insists a partnership session settle in advance what partners will never do.
Topics: Scenario planning: failure, windfall, a partner dropping out · Conflicts between partners
Will lawyers and the courts protect a partner?
Not reliably: in 2025 Ukrainian enforcement services collected 1.5 kopecks per hryvnia of debt, and only about 30% of claimants received real money. A strong partnership agreement exists to keep things out of court: conflict rules, mediation, a share-valuation formula.
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Partnership: the blind spot of business · Why partners avoid signing an agreement
Where does a crisis in a partnership come from?
From the accumulated gap between "what we agreed" and "how things are": old roles, expectations and agreements run on inertia until the gap turns critical. Looking for a culprit is pointless: the rules went stale and no new ones were agreed.
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Managing partner relationships · The author's own partnerships
How close to reality is what partners do during conflicts?
A reader poll: the author says that what partners do during conflicts makes his blood run cold, and asks how close that impression is to reality.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners
Is every conflict with a partner worth the nerves?
No: not every conflict is worth the nervous energy, not every partner is ready to agree, not every situation deserves another chance. Sometimes peace means leaving a game where your balance is constantly tested.
Topics: Conflicts between partners
How can partners settle disputes without going to court?
Step by step: regular meetings outside operations, a formal notice of the dispute, a meeting of partners without lawyers, a neutral arbiter, and only then mediation, arbitration or court. The author calls court a defeat: costly and years long.
Topics: Conflicts between partners
How do you keep a partnership together when partners see things differently?
Start not by proving you are right but by describing what you feel, and treat your own position as a hypothesis to be tested. When partners try to prove a point the ego wins and the business often loses; strong partners tell emotion from decision.
Topics: Conflicts between partners
Why do the deepest business crises come from silence, not mistakes?
Where a direct conversation is needed, a guess appears; where an agreement is needed, an assumption or silence. The author calls the unsaid a form of passive manipulation; on a recorded talk, one partner regrets they did not speak like this two years earlier.
How do you respond when a partner does not respect your time?
In the case described, three steps worked: a carefully prepared letter to the partner, organisational measures against a repeat, and a separate meeting on one subject only, respect for time. Ignoring another's time, the author says, costs that person part of their life.
Topics: Conflicts between partners
Why does a frame of agreements give partners more freedom?
After 20 years coaching Belgium's Olympic team, Alain Goudsmet reached a formula: more frame, more freedom; less frame, more control. Without agreements partners slide into dissatisfaction and control; agreements give a fulcrum for accepted freedom.
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Ideas from adjacent fields · Why partners avoid signing an agreement
Why do critical partnership problems stay below the waterline?
By Sidney Yoshida's "iceberg of ignorance" model, most problems are never voiced, and partners lose touch with each other and with the business. The author suggests honest talk, partner meetings, one-on-one feedback and a facilitated session twice a year.
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Ideas from adjacent fields · Partnership session
Why does staying silent set off a delayed conflict in a partnership?
A crack forms not from betrayal but from the unsaid: fear of spoiling the relationship or seeming difficult postpones the conflict and multiplies the tension. The author advises speaking up once discomfort appears and refreshing agreements in a partnership session.
Why is a lack of disagreement between partners a warning sign?
If there is no disagreement, one partner is probably adding no value: a partnership's strength is its range of views. Disagreement is productive with clear roles, transparency, and a focus on improving the business rather than on winning the argument.
Topics: Conflicts between partners
Is a partner worth a second chance?
The question comes down to whether the partner can change, tested by three questions: are both ready for a mature dialogue and a mature conflict, and is the offender capable of sincere remorse. A single "no" means a loop of "continue or part ways".
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Partner misconduct and internal control
What do partners in post-Soviet countries agree on?
Most often shares and profit (36%), roles (32%) and strategy (22%), and only 27% of partnerships get through their life cycle without major conflicts. For agreeing on their own, the author compiled 20 questions in four groups.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Conscious partnership · Equity split between partners · Partnership session · Tools and services
What should partners do when their relationship hits a crisis?
Breaking up is an extreme exit and usually far from optimal. A crisis means the old rules no longer work: boundaries and expectations have to be redefined and recorded, and with skilled negotiation the new agreement works better than the old one.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Conscious partnership · Scenario planning: failure, windfall, a partner dropping out
How can a two-partner exit dispute be settled in one evening?
The author's mediation terms: three separate rooms, no time limit, the parties' usual comfort, no alcohol, unlimited food. After interviews and a joint session, the parties wrote out by hand, at 1 a.m., an agreement with the sum, payment schedule and deferred terms.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: A partner's exit from the business · Conflicts between partners · Tools and services
Why is an appeal to authority not an argument in a dispute?
Even a recognised expert's opinion must be backed by facts, logic or evidence: a person's status does not make their words correct. Such an appeal is a logical fallacy, argumentum ad verecundiam, and a dispute should turn on the substance of the arguments.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Ideas from adjacent fields
Which five habits are sure to break a partnership apart?
Interrupting the partner, forgetting promises, taking company money without questions, taking time off without warning and sorting out disputes in front of the staff. The advice is given ironically, in reverse.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners
How does a false dichotomy help dismiss an inconvenient argument?
It is the straw-man fallacy: the other side’s position is replaced by an extreme, absurd alternative while all other options are ignored. The author shows three forms in business dialogue: opposite swapped for contradiction, extreme conclusions and emotional manipulation.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Ideas from adjacent fields
What ritual helps partners stop talking shop outside work?
Spouses who co-own a business used a non-verbal sign: a vase in the hallway turned to the wall means no talk about work. A rival club’s flag in the office worked the same way for business partners, far better than the phrase “we need to talk”.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners
How can partners agree in advance on how they will clash?
The author offers a six-rule protocol for “we disagree, what do we do”: give arguments, do not interrupt, rely on facts rather than emotion, argue rested, probe the partner’s position, and decide nothing mid-dispute but return a day or two later.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners
Should a conflict with a partner be settled by chat or in person?
The author gives an unconditional rule: in any conflict with a partner, do not chat, meet and talk. The rule comes without caveats or examples.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners
Can the break-up of a partnership benefit a whole industry?
The brothers Adi and Rudi began as partners, but accumulated disagreements split them, and each founded a major sports brand: Adidas and Puma. The film shows how clashing ambitions and competition can drive an entire industry forward.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners
How do you resolve a conflict with the FAVER technique from Stanford?
Five first-person steps: name your emotions, ask yourself “what” triggered them, assume the other person means no harm, discuss the facts with I-statements, and part without hostility. The technique is taught at Stanford Medical School.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: Conflicts between partners · Ideas from adjacent fields · When partners see different realities
What should partners do if one of them drops out after a personal tragedy?
Agree on a scenario in advance. Partners come up with different solutions: a psychologist paid by the company, a long leave with agreements preserved, a mandatory month away from the business, or an open discussion of adequacy and satisfaction with the work.
Original: LinkedIn
Topics: A partner's exit from the business · Conflicts between partners · Scenario planning: failure, windfall, a partner dropping out
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