I was reading about a film writer and director recently. He was talking about the breakdown of his relationship with his producer. In the last two months of pre-production, he had received only five emails from her. She rarely turned up on set. She failed to secure the music rights they needed and did not obtain permission to film in Swaziland.

The practical consequences were expensive. The emotional ones were heavier. He realised he was making the film alone, even though he was not supposed to be.

That part struck me.

Because the real issue was not the missing clearances. It was the absence. The drift. The slow quiet loss of shared purpose.

This happens in creative work, organisational work, project work. Anywhere where the output depends on people actually showing up to the thing, not just being listed on the team sheet.

I pay close attention to this in my own partnerships with clients, sponsors and collaborators.

I look for:

• Responsiveness, even if the response is “I need time”.
• Presence in the messy parts of the work, not just the showcase moments.
• A shared understanding of what we are trying to make. Not just tasks. Meaning.

When that starts to slip, I raise it early. Not aggressively. Just direct.

“I need to understand where you are in this. Are we still making this together?”

Because work can survive problems. It can survive delay. It can survive constraints.

What it cannot survive is absence.