SMART PARTNERING
To survive, we must partner. To thrive, we must become smart
partners
. The sphere of "me" is collapsing in on itself as businesses slowly migrate from hierarchical to networking organizations. Successful
leaders
must understand and appreciate the profound
marketplace
implications of this human journey from connections to disconnections to reconnections. Businesses are becoming organic networks, neural webs. Networks grow by propagating connections. Connectivity happens when businesses form strategic alliances and partnerships within and between
themselves
. Alliances produce astonishing results only when information flows
freely
and people trust each other and are loyal to one another.
Organizations are struggling to
react
quickly to ever-changing customer needs, alliances, technologies, and top-talent wants and whims. Companies are straining to shift with market winds and financial swings, striving to outlast
competitors
. Openness, agility, creativity, and resiliency are needed to stay afloat in shifting currents. Smart partnering, and the ability to create a partnering culture invigorated by the partnering infrastructure needed to focus on
rapidly
changing situations, will enable business leaders to relearn this ancient art and translate it into a modern business model. As customer needs swirl, as markets migrate, as technologies erupt, as a new generation bursts into the American workforce, as partners tango and split up and
dance
again, companies must have a superabundance of connections to withstand the shockwaves of these massive movements. Like the age of machines waltzed in the Industrial Age, the information age now dances with a partner, the age of connections. Information fuels connections, and connections create new information. Call our time the
Dual Age of Information and Connections.
The ability to partner successfully in the Dual Age of Information and Connections has an impact on every aspect of an organization's culture and operations—from its strategic framework, through its business processes, to its human resources strategy—resulting in a workplace where people want to stay and to which they will contribute their best talents. Building on the Partnership Continuum
TM
partnering model first proposed by Stephen M. Dent in Partnering Intelligence: Creating Value for Your Business by Building Strong Alliances (1999, 2004), Powerhouse Partners provides readers with an organization model designed for fast-forward businesses that understand the value of connectivity and loyalty. The Powerhouse Partner Model offers the structure and skills needed to build a partnering infrastructure while
inspiring
employee loyalty and commitment to the vision and objectives of the enterprise. Powerhouse Partners shows you in practical ways how to transition from a traditional enterprise to a partnering organization.
CREATING A PARTNERING CULTURE
Chapter 1, an overview of organization culture, underscores the link between culture and bottom-line business results. An organization culture is a self-
reinforcing
system, and culture rules. Culture springs
mainly
from how
leaders
behave.
Culture by evolution
happens when no
deliberate
thought or design is applied to the configuration of an organization's culture.
Culture by design
happens when leaders sit down and
formulate
a culture and then rigorously communicate and live by its tenets. In the twenty-first century, a business that wants to stay
alive
, and thrive, must learn the lessons of a designed culture.
After opening with some key culture-
related
questions, Chapter 2 outlines the authors' concept of a partnering organization and lists its advantages as compared to a traditional command-and-control enterprise. To build a partnering organization, leaders must create a partnering culture, a culture designed both to expedite internal alliances and to extend the same partnering expertise externally to
forge
mutually
beneficial relationships with other companies. The primary characteristics of a partnering culture derive from the Six Partnering Attributes
TM
: Self-Disclosure and Feedback, Win-Win Orientation, Ability to Trust, Future Orientation, Comfort with Change, and Comfort with Interdependence. A partnering culture, a
governing
culture, fosters collaboration among existing subcultures, rather than cutthroat competition. Creating a partnering culture
positions
an organization to accrue four chief benefits: openness, creativity, agility, and resiliency.
