What’s a Social Contract & How Can it Help
Crafting a social contract can foster transparency, understanding, and effective communication
I went from being misunderstood to being understood in just 5 minutes after implementing a social contract. I couldn't believe the impact it had. I will break down the process and provide a template for creating your own social contract.
I had the great opportunity to work with Eric Bahn at Hustle Fund during my previous startup. We secured funding from Hustle Fund, and Eric Bahn was one of the partners who helped us. The intro call with Eric following the completion of the round remains etched in my memory.
Before diving into anything, Eric took time to walk me through his social contract. Prior to this, I wasn’t familiar with the concept of a social contract. While I’m familiar with organizations having core values and/or operating virtues, the notion of a social contract was unfamiliar territory.
Eric’s social contract provided valuable insights into his operating style, values, and expectations as a partner. Not only should organizations have operating virtues, but every leader should define their own through a social contract. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can create separate social contracts for various engagements, such as founder & VC, manager & employee, employee & employee or employee & vendor engagement.
In the context of Eric’s social contract, it pertains to his role as a partner to founders. I resonated with his perspective on how founders often struggle navigating the VC relationship after fundraising. As a founder, you’re constantly in this mode of pitching to secure funding and gaining VC support. This can sometimes divert your attention from building a business to fundraise versus building a business to build a business.
Inspired by my conversation with Eric, I decided to create my own social contract to share with team members and anyone I worked with moving forward. Particularly in today's remote work environment, where face-to-face interactions are limited, it becomes challenging for team members to understand who you are, how you operate, and why you operate that way.
A social contract provided me with an opportunity to establish and clearly define these expectations. Whenever I enter a new working relationship, I prioritize walking them through my social contract during our first 1:1 meeting. Below, is the my social contract when I was a co-founder:
Blunt honesty - While I may be direct, always assume that the direct feedback is coming from a good place in my heart. I don't like being surprised or surprising anyone else, so committing to hard/fast honesty is a solid means of getting to transparency.
I am pragmatic - A person who is pragmatic is concerned more with matters of fact than with what could or should be. A pragmatic person's realm is results and consequences. This helps me be the best operator I can be. Please commit to understanding this.
We don't give up - I will commit to putting it all out there and hope you can too. I will do everything I can to support you, empower you, and help you be successful.
Your success is dependent on my success - We're in this together. I don't assume you will be successful without my help. I truly believe your success is dependent on my success and my success is dependent on your success. Let's help each other and win together.
Growth mindset - I will always be open to feedback and I hope you can commit to this too. I will not defend and rather embrace the feedback to learn and grow. I will continue to focus on those two things and I will need your help to accomplish this.
Business is war without bullets - It's not going to be pretty. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. This is also not daycare for adults - I expect results.
We will do things differently - You may already realize that I do things differently with this social contract. I might do things different because they are what I believe will set ourselves up for the most amount of success. I strive for a working relationship that's mutually benefiting, engaging, and productive.
As I reflect on the next phase of my career, I anticipate that my social contract will change, depending on the specific context in which I am working. I will likely put less importance on some aspects than others, but who I am, how I operate and why I operate that way will remain the same. I’ll always stick to my roots of learning, growing, driving results, and helping others.
Eric’s introduction to the social contract has had a profound impact on my professional journey. By crafting a social contract, we can foster transparency, understanding, and effective communication with those around us, especially in a remote world. As I enter the next chapter of my career, I am excited to refine and adapt my social contract.