INSTITUTIONALIZING PARTNERING

An organization's structure, indeed every position within the organization, needs to be derived from and find meaning in the organization's purpose. The main purpose of structure is to connect people and resources in a manner that best enables achievement of an organization's Strategic business objectives and that most quickly moves the organization toward its vision and values. Of course it also provides a mechanism for dividing up accountabilities and tasks, that is, who will do what when for whom. However, the highest purpose of structure is to act as a means of coordinating, focusing, and unifying the individual efforts of all the organization's members. Structure sets the framework for how an organization chooses to achieve its Strategic business objectives. Direction without structure dissolves into aimlessness; structure without direction becomes rigid. Creating a viable partnering organization requires not only the embracing of a partnering philosophy and the adoption of a systematic partnering process, it also entails the creation of a partnering structure that is both loose and tight, fast and anchored, agile and solid.

In this chapter we have introduced the job design concepts of a Partnering Profile and a Partnering Summary and the organization design model of a partnering network. We have shown how a Company can adopt, or adapt, these new ideas to align and integrate the day-to-day activities of the organization in a way that speeds the flow of information and optimizes the propagation of connections. What we have been talking about in sum is how to institutionalize partnering in the Dual Age of Information and Connections. Partnering creates value; people partner; build your organization for partnering; pay for partnering. And pick your partners. In Chapter 6 we discuss how you can use the Partnering Interview to identify and hire-more readily and reliably-people who already have the partnering competencies you need to create a partnering organization, to become a Powerhouse Partner.