Collaborations Between Organizations

There is no such thing as win/win, just valid, honorable aspiration that in practice reflects appreciation and accommodation.

There is no such thing as complete win/win. It's a nice ideal, but can't happen in practice. Reality is 'the best compromise'. The pure nature of relationships between customer, suppliers, and partners is that they have organizational motivations which may bring them together but others which conflict. I want you to pay me as much as you can afford; I want to pay you as little as I have to. While that is the obvious one, there are many more.

Four factors drive long term success in relationships:

Public, explicit expectations - what's usually in a contract
Private, explicit expectations - 'We hold the line on costs with all our vendors'
Public, implicit - 'I'm your largest customer, I expect you to jump for me'
Private implicit - 'I am judging you on your value-add'

Most relationship management methodologies fail to accommodate all four factors and certainly cannot manage them with accuracy and precision.

There is no such thing as 'an aligned relationship' - it's a goal to work towards. At the level at which people choose to act, we are never fully aligned. The initial Alignment Index for groups we've measured is between 44 and 83 on a 100-point scale.

Symptoms of misalignment include:

The language shifts from "we" to "them" and "us"
The activities seem disconnected and not in synch
Any silence contains negative inferences about intentions

The key is getting both parties engaged in the dialogue and maintaining a high level of discussability.

Between Organizations

CRM Strategies
Outsourcing Relationships
Mergers and Acquisitions
Joint Ventures
Partnerships