3 Gather 'round. This is no time to use e-mail or videoconferencing.There's no more sophisticated method to build up trust than to meetwith people the old-fashioned way, around a table. Listen to theobjections, find out what the agendas are, buy them lunch (better yet,cocktails), and then do it all over again as people leave andmanagement changes. Boston-based Partners HealthCare System recentlybegan sharing some data with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts,a health insurer. The undertaking makes sense for both sides, butfirst the parties had to overcome antagonism caused by fractiousnegotiations on reimbursement rates that happen every few years. JohnGlaser, vice president of IT and CIO for Partners, and hiscounterpart, Blue Cross CIO Carl Ascenzo, discovered that a smallhumanizing touch is sometimes all that's necessary to getcollaboration working. The person who does claims processing atPartners got together with her counterpart at Blue Cross for the firsttime. "The social glue didn't exist because they had never met. Onepart of collaborating is getting to the point where you realize youlike the other person," says Glaser.

4 Go for the win-win. It's a cliché, but beprepared to hear - andsay - "win-win" (or even "win-win-win") over and over again. That'sbecause collaboration really is a new way of doing business, a systemin which the biggest parties do not bully and abuse their partnersbecause they can, but rather help create an environment that optimizesbusiness for all supply chain members. If you can't demonstrate thatthe collaboration initiative will benefit everyone, no one is going toget behind it - in their hearts, minds or wallets.

5 Don't give away the store. Declare that no one has to, or should,share all information. Even in this day of the extended enterprise,some information should remain proprietary. Acknowledge that pointright away so that people can relax. You don't have to shareeverything to improve your supply chain's performance. Simple exchangeof demand, consumption and capacity forecasts can go a long way.

6 Just do it. One of the best ways to build trust is simply to startsharing information. If all goes well, success breeds trust,emboldening the partners to go on to bigger things. Rousseau doesn'tworry that sharing data will lead Wal-Mart and other customers such asKmart to try to drum down Spalding's costs. "That will happen anyway.We're not afraid of that. We just have the kind of relationship whereit's beneficial to both sides to share as much information as we can,"she says.

Having a history of successes together goes a long way to maintainingtrust, Rousseau says. "Nothing bad has ever happened with theinformation they send to us. And vice versa. Trust evolves throughreliability and being able to have accurate, timely data."