A PARTNERING NETWORK

Reconfiguring job descriptions to incorporate the three dimensions of partnering is a first step but is in itself insufficient to institutionalize partnering. The next step in ensuring that an organization's structure is aligned both with its partnering philosophy and with its partnering processes is to redesign the enterprise as a partnering network. How a particular partnering network looks on paper will of course vary from organization to organization, but we would like to lay out suitable design criteria for a partnering organization and then offer a collaborative process for going about the work of building a partnering network. But remember: A partnering culture is a governing organization culture intended to optimize interconnections among an enterprise's various subcultures, which are sometimes at odds with one another. Furthermore, building a partnering network is not a new incarnation of "reengineering."

Building a partnering network involves mainly overlaying the partnering network atop the existing organization structure. We are not necessarily talking about massive, top-to-bottom organizational surgery, although in certain instances that degree of structural redesign might, for other sound business reasons, be in order. A partnering network is a structure that formally connects the organization's members based on the internal relationships required to accomplish a particular task. Thus, partnering networks overlay departmental boundaries, enabling the enterprise to achieve its strategic goals. For example, engineers partner with marketers to bring products to the marketplace. Design in ways to make it easy for partners to meet and work face-to-face often. Time and distance are heartless, relentless adversaries. A company that aspires to prosper as a partnering organization has to configure itself so that the members of its most critical partnerships can connect with each other, almost without thinking, as often as they need to. Organizations do not partner; people partner.