When thinking about partnerships, there are many greats that come to mind.

Freddie Mercury and Brian May from Queen—yes, I have seen the movie, which highlights that you can have disputes but also resolve them—Paul McCartney and John Lennon—from The Beatles, for our younger readers—Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar from Afterpay, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar from Atlassian, and Barack and Michelle Obama.

In the sporting world, I can think of Michael Jordan and Nike, Kevin Sheedy and Essendon, Ash Barty and Craig Tyzzer, even Nathan Buckley and Collingwood—this last one perhaps shows the importance of having an exit strategy, as nothing lasts forever.

Many years ago when I was asked to help clinics improve their customer service, financial sustainability, operational matters and strategic planning, I never really saw conflict resolution within partnerships as part of my work or within the scope of assistance that I would give to my fellow allied health professionals.

More recently, from time to time I have been asked to help find a resolution to conflict within partnerships.

Although I’m not a behavioural psychologist or a professional negotiator, there are trends that have become apparent to me in situations where conflict has occurred.

It is due to these encounters that I believe that if we can learn from the mistakes of others, then maybe we can avoid the trouble in which others have found themselves.

Bear in mind, when I talk about conflict between partners, I’m not talking about whether or not there is low-fat milk or decaffeinated coffee in the staffroom.

I’m talking about deep-seated resentment in terms of aspects of financial arrangements, responsibilities, accountability and vision.

If you do find yourself in dispute over the type of coffee, milk or biscuits in the staffroom, you really have more problems than you can poke a stick at.

So, here are the top things to think about, which I believe will reduce the likelihood of significant conflict within your partnership:

• Choose wisely—if you don’t think your values, goals and aspirations align, look elsewhere.


• Have a guaranteed exit strategy just in case things don’t go according to plan and have a predetermined method of valuation (keep in mind that if you can’t agree on the ‘what if’ scenario then maybe don’t start the partnership in the first place).


• Have a documented written agreement, put it in the bottom drawer and plan never to use it. It will contain roles, responsibilities, expectations and non-negotiables.


• Changing the rules once the game or a partnership has started is challenging at the best of times. Be prepared in this case to compromise for the greater good, even if you don’t get all that you want. Be realistic—do you always get everything you want in life?


• If possible, don’t employ family or your spouses within the business, make sure all the partners are paid at market rates for their professional and non-professional roles within the business and ensure that there is a minimum number of hours that must be completed to remain a partner. In other words, prevent the opportunity for what is essentially a silent partner in the business to eventuate, if that was never the intention.


• If you are in conflict, try not to let it become obvious to the rest of your team and staff. This is a slippery slope and can easily lead to a loss of business viability. Remember to praise each other in public and criticise each other in private.


• If there is a problem, focus on the solution and don’t dwell on the past.


• Document and sign off on all the major decisions just like you would if you were on a committee of a local sporting club or organisation. Partnerships are a bit like being on a board of management consisting of two or three others, so record the minutes of your meetings and who was present or absent and have action plans. Record keeping, from my experience and observations, can absolutely reduce the likelihood for conflict.


• Anticipate potential disputes before they occur and resolve them before they happen if you can. To use an analogy for my firefighting brother: it’s easier to put out a camp fire than a raging bushfire (keep in mind here that open discussion does not compromise a written agreement).


• Don’t worry if good solutions don’t jump off the page at you. From my observation and experience, good solutions develop after a period of pondering and percolation.


• Good solutions require communicational and emotional intelligence. They require stress management, empathy and impartiality and without these things you will quickly find yourself up the creek without a paddle and probably in a canoe with holes in it—in other words, you are going to be somewhere you don’t want to be (hence the reason for having a get-out-of-jail card for the benefit of you and the other partners).


• Remember, a conflict at work is no different from a conflict in any aspect of life. You need to identify the problem, communicate and discuss with those whom it affects, work towards a compromise, get an action plan to correct it and, most importantly, gain a commitment from those involved to rectify it. Have a review date down the track to see if you’ve achieved what you agreed on. Only use mediation as a last resort.

Antony Hirst encourages conflict resolution for healthy and productive partnerships. 

Physiotherapists are an intelligent bunch of people in most cases and if you follow the points in the aforementioned paragraphs, I’m confident you will avoid conflict within the partnership.

But don’t be naive enough to think that it will never happen to you.

If it does, it’s usually as a result of a breakdown in communication, management and business processes and/or planning.

While I have, to the best of my ability, facilitated dispute resolutions within physiotherapy clinics, ultimately the decision on what happens is up to the partners.

After all, it’s their business, their money and their future.

Now let’s finish on the obvious positive note.

When you do have a great partnership, great communication and appropriate compromise when disputes or conflicts arise, in the vast majority of cases you can achieve significantly more than you could on your own.

A great partnership allows you to achieve outstanding personal, professional and business outcomes.

They are wonderful things but, just like your personal relationships, they require hard work and attention to detail for long-term success.

Who knows, in years to come both your peers and the greater community may talk about your fantastic partnership.

Good luck!

>> Antony Hirst, APAM, has been a physiotherapist since 1992 and has always had a keen interest in private practice sustainability. He is the current chair of the Victorian APA Business group committee and spends his time helping physiotherapy clinics through Antony Hirst Consulting.