Partnering with other organizations to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes is increasingly common in today’s business environment. Performance Insight has developed an iterative process that helps partnering organizations overcome the multitude of obstacles to effective partnering and achieve mutual success. Typical components of this process include the formation of a “leadership council” comprised of top-level members from both partnering organizations to guide subsequent actions. We then get a baseline assessment of the current state of the partnership via the administration and analysis of our unique PARTNERSHiPinsight™ Survey. This web-based survey taps multiple dimensions critical to the healthy functioning of partnerships. Our survey is designed to assess perceptions in the following domains: joint strategy execution; partner roles, responsibilities, and areas of authority; program execution; and intra- and cross-team effectiveness. Survey respondents are asked to indicate both their clarity on and the perceived effectiveness in key areas. Respondents also indicate what they perceive as barriers to partnership effectiveness and provide recommendations for improvement at both the intra- and joint-team levels. This unique survey comprehensively provides, through the use of both qualitative and quantitative data and targeted recommendations, a road map for how to get your partnership on track and achieving shared success.
Based on the insight gleaned from this survey, we facilitate independent offsites to brief results and develop action plans for internal issues. A joint offsite follows to develop action plans around cross-partner issues, provide skill development in areas crucial to effective partnering, teambuilding, and improving trust. Facilitated periodic leadership council meetings ensure joint leadership is speaking with “one voice” and tracking progress against agreed-upon actions. A common application of the PARTNERSHiP™ Program is with government acquisition programs, as an effective government-industry partnership, where there is mutual trust, alignment, collaboration, coordination, and communication, is essential to both program performance and mission success.
