Busy artists and community activists planning a residency to address urgent community problems don't feel that they have enough time to do more than chat on the phone shortly before the grant application is due. But time spent up front, attending to how you will do what you will do together, will save you time and trouble down the line. Answering these questions at the outset will smooth out the bumps and reduce the number of surprises during the collaboration. In order to work together well, it helps to establish some guidelines about how you want to behave with each other, and what you need and expect from each other. Not every partnership can articulate its guidelines, but they all have some, whether they voice them or not.
Unwritten rules cause discord.
If no one has said it's important to arrive on time, and someone consistently shows up late, those on time resent the late one. The late one feels the resentment without understanding its cause. In a partnership that avoids confrontation, resentment festers and spoils the atmosphere. So the first day, we spent a lot of time agreeing to ground rules. For example, people should come on time.