WHAT DOES A POWERHOUSE PARTNER LOOK LIKE?

In today's economic environment connectivity is critical for any business aspiring to be a true Powerhouse Partner. The ability to partner successfully 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. Smart partnering, and the ability to create a partnering culture invigorated by the partnering infrastructure needed to adapt to rapidly changing situations, will enable business leaders to relearn the ancient art of connection and translate it into a modern business model. The Powerhouse Partner Model offers the structure and skills needed to practice focused leadership, build a partnering infrastructure, and develop smart partners, while inspiring employee loyalty and commitment to the vision, mission, and strategic directions of the enterprise. In this book we have shown you in practical ways how to transition your company from a traditional enterprise to a partnering organization.

In a Powerhouse Partner, an abundance mentality rather than a scarcity mentality drives behavior. The catchphrase "together we can get more for everybody" guides behavior more often than "let's hold on to what we've got." If we partner, we get our personal, professional, and organizational needs met—at levels not possible in a competitive environment, not to mention in organization cultures that actively encourage cutthroat behavior among leaders and employees. A Powerhouse Partner tends to attack the marketplace more offensively than a traditional organization, seeing changes—whether economic, social, political, financial, or otherwise—primarily as opportunities for growth and expansion, rather than as threats. A Powerhouse Partner gives people a broad range of accountabilities through strategic directives; connects people through partnering charters; unifies functions by physically positioning departments and people close to each other; and delegates accomplishment of tasks through fewer layers of management and broad spans of control.

A Powerhouse Partner invests enormous resources in finding, hiring, keeping, and growing smart partners: doers, not watchers, who appreciate the potency of partnering and who take personal accountability for delivering on commitments by collaborating with whomever it makes sense to do so, internally and externally. The members of a Powerhouse Partner are recognized and rewarded for displaying the partnering behaviors that deliver results for everyone involved. A Powerhouse Partner replaces the zero-sum game rule book with guidelines anchored in a "we all win" outlook. Smart partners win not only because of what they do, but also because of how they do it.

A Powerhouse Partner aims first at expediting internal alliances among its diverse functions and second at extending the same partnering expertise externally to forge mutually beneficial relationships with customers, suppliers, and other companies. The partnering attribute Self-Disclosure and Feedback enables each of the diverse subcultures of a company to get its own needs met, the fundamental purpose of partnering. Self-disclosure and feedback also help enhance organization openness and thus make it easier for leaders to see the marketplace more quickly, more clearly, and more comprehensively. In a company in which people value and practice the art of self-disclosure and feedback, higher levels of openness become easier to attain.

The attribute Ability to Trust forms the foundation of a work climate in which people know and appreciate the limits of reliability and can be sure that these borders will be respected. Trust is the one characteristic of a partnering culture that is at once both an input into the partnership and an output of the partnership. The people in an organization build trust when they consistently satisfy each other's expectations. Only one experience of betrayal will threaten even the best-crafted partnership. In a Powerhouse Partner the partnering attributes Self-Disclosure and Feedback and Ability to Trust work together to reinforce the organization's foundation for openness.

Like trust, the attribute Future Orientation serves as a kind of lubricant for the organization. Smart partners know themselves well enough to keep from getting trapped in the past, and they trust themselves to make new plans and try innovative approaches. A future orientation helps people and organizations see the possibilities in new situations and approach them with hope and good faith. Creativity at its heart involves seeing the same old things in new ways, letting go of how one has viewed things and done things in the past.

The attribute Comfort with Change enables a Powerhouse Partner to identify obstacles to change, develop strategies for coping with them, and formulate action plans for implementing desired business changes. Survival, reinvigoration, or growth determines why an organization might risk reaching out to form a partnership or strategic alliance. Being comfortable with change helps steady people to take the plunge, to risk belittlement, punishment, even failure. The act of reaching out, of being willing to do something differently, will disrupt the status quo and precipitate change. In a Powerhouse Partner the partnering attributes Future Orientation and Comfort with Change work together to move the organization to the future with creativity.

The attribute Win-Win Orientation means that people use conflict resolution and problem-solving strategies that benefit all parties involved. The people in a Powerhouse Partner lean on the Negotiator style when working together to resolve conflicts. A win-win orientation also forms the heart of marketplaces, the interconnections that give an organization ready access to the capital, competencies, technologies, and other resources it does not possess in-house. Competitive advantage in the twenty-first century will more likely derive from the informal links among marketplaces. Informal exchanges across marketplaces will deliver competent people, information, technology, and materiel to where it is needed, when it is needed, how it is needed, at the price desired.

The final partnering attribute, Comfort with Interdependence, occurs when we have a sense that we're all in this together and we look out for each other's success. When leaders value interdependence, they create an environment that encourages involvement. Moreover, Comfort with Interdependence enables continuity and vibrancy in marketplaces. Interdependence is an active, ongoing process that requires all parties to move from initial independence to vibrant collaboration. Such collaborative strategies require people to forge partnerships in which all sides profit from the success of one another. In a Powerhouse Partner the partnering attributes Win-Win Orientation and Comfort with Interdependence work together to enable the organization to embrace connectivity for agility.