Handover, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is the act of giving responsibility for something to another person, or the period during which this happens. Looks simple, like you take the baton from one person and run further. When it comes to contract negotiation handover, things are usually more complicated.

In the ideal world you take negotiation from another person and expect that you have all the previous history of negotiations, access to all the necessary tools, playbooks, parameters and contact details, study folders and trackers are stuffed with the most up-to-date information, etc.

The reality is usually different. Lack of data, training, IT issues – all of this and many more can be obstacles for ‘running further’.

So how to survive this period? We figured out some tips for negotiators on how to survive a handover. Here are some simple rules:

1. TAKE IT STEP BY STEP. Handover is always a stress. Once you took the negotiations, you will surely be expected to act quickly, at least as fast as your predecessor (or faster, in case slow negotiation was the reason for handover), and you will surely feel a lot of pressure from the project team. This is absolutely normal, so no reason for panic.

2. BE CONSISTENT. Don’t take everything at once. Discuss priorities with the project team and work site-by-site.

3. BE TRANSPARENT. Handover period in most cases is the period of putting negotiations back on track. Negotiator will surely work hard on this, but the progress shall always be visible to the project team. Don’t forget about the trackers, or even better – schedule brief weekly status update calls, at least for the transition period.

4. DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK FOR REASONABLE HELP. People unite into teams to make possible something that is not possible to do for one person. So, remember, you can always count on the team’s support.

The above four (at least) will help you to tackle handover properly. What would you add to the above?