Aligning Individuals, Divisions, and Organizations
	Seven Hidden Networks, Partnering Resources White Paper NEW! Beyond organization charts and process maps is a hidden web of relationships that drive performance and innovation. Employees activate these informal connections when they need to solve problems, make decisions, or get the lowdown on what's happening in the company. All in all, there are seven hidden networks that influence a corporation's strategic success. This Partnering Resources white paper describes these networks and demonstrates the problems that can occur when networks are misaligned. Click here to read the article.
	The Three Most Important Positions You Don't Know About Yet, Partnering Resources White Paper NEW! The most powerful people in organizations often can't be identified on organization charts or process maps. These "stealth players" occupy critical places in informal organizational networks and have the ability to make or break change. This white paper describes the three positions and how to leverage them. Click here to read the article.
	Curing Ecosystem Blindness, Boston University Corporate Education Center NEW! Today's organizations are deeply embedded in complex ecosystems. Understanding your company's space in its ecosystem can help you anticipate market challenges and help your company thrive during change. This article explains what an ecosystem is and why curing ecosystem blindness is essential for leaders today. Click here to read the article.
	Strategic Planning that Works, Boston University Corporate Education Center NEW! Only 11% of executives strongly believe that strategic planning is worth the effort (Mankins & Steele in Harvard Business Review, 1/06). Yet, companies continue to plan year after year. Surely there must be a way to reduce the pain and increase the return on investment. This article outlines tips and techniques for improving the strategic planning process. Click here to read the article.
	Building Successful Alliances Across Divisions, CIO.Com We live in a world of change where the only constants seem to be the need to boost performance, increase productivity, and collaborate with others. We rely on our colleagues to share knowledge, solve problems with us, provide information, and support our work. In return, we do the same. Yet, collaboration is more difficult than it sounds. This article, featured on CIO.Com, presents tips on how to build successful alliances. Click here to read the article.
	Creating Productive Partnerships, Boston University Corporate Education Center True partnerships transform good relationships into extraordinary ones. Not only that, they make routine work interesting, complicated projects energizing, and difficult workplaces rewarding. Partners boost the quality of deliverables, access a broader range of resources, and develop innovative ideas. More than ever, people are turning to partnerships in organizations. Click here to read about how to make your partnership work.
	Managing Competing Priorities, CIO.Com Got too much on your plate? Most IT executives do. In this article, featured at CIO.Com, we present tips and techniques for getting your priorities under control. Click here to read the CIO.Com article.
Adapting to Organization, Industry, and Market Change
	Planning Your Business Strategy in the Corporate Ecosystem CIO.Com NEW! These days, what happens to your business partners can affect your success. This article explains how to take external risks into account when you plan for the future. Read on to learn more about the business ecosystem.
	Closure, Layoffs, and Learning, Chief Learning Officer NEW! Keeping employees engaged during a company closure is one of the hardest tasks a manager faces. This case study features a group of leaders who not only kept people engaged, but gave employees what they called "the best job I ever had." Read the article for lessons learned from this extraordinary experience.
	Becoming a Change Leader, CIO.Com NEW! If you want to lead your organization to achieve its goals—and stand out from the pack when competing for jobs—you need to learn how to lead change effectively. Read on to learn the four key factors to successful change-management efforts.
	Learning Matters!, Mass High Tech Projects are more than 100 percent more successful today than they were in 1994, according to Boston's The Standish Group. How can we explain this tremendous improvement? We're learning. Click here to read about the strategic value of learning and how you can embed learning into your organization.
	Energizing a Weary Workforce, Boston University Corporate Education Center "Actively disengaged" workers cost US businesses $300 billion a year in productivity losses, according to a recent Gallup study. In today's competitive environment, organizations can't afford to have slackers in the workforce. Yet, so many employees have been worn down by non-stop changes, continually rising expectations, and increasing speed of delivery. This article suggests ways to energize a weary workforce and reengage employees. Click here to read the article.
	Building Cross-Cultural Intelligence, Boston University Corporate Education Center The problem many Americans face when we work cross-culturally is that we assume that we won’t have to think about culture. The work will naturally fall into line, we think. Then, we reconsider when things don’t go as expected. Click here to read about how to boost your cultural competency.
	Success Factors for Lasting Change, Boston University Corporate Education Center It takes time and a surprising amount of effort to shift an organization to a new way of operating. According to a recent McKinsey study, only 38% of responding organizations believed their transformation was completely or mostly successful at improving the company’s performance. Click here to learn what factors to put in place in order to make your change effort a success.
	Why Learning Matters, Boston University Corporate Education Center Learning is one of an organization’s most critical intangible assets. It’s not listed on the balance sheets, yet learning drives product innovation, rapid response to change, and process improvement. Click here to read about how to leverage learning to gain results in your organization.
	Lessons from the Field: Applying Complex Adaptive Systems Theory to Organization Change, OD Practitioner This article explains how insights from the new sciences can help organizations break through to new insights and actions. Click here to download.
Achieving High Performance
	Performance Management Myths & Facts, Boston University Corporate Education Center Ever wonder who's really responsible for performance management? Or whether you can change a goal halfway through the year? This short article busts some current performance management myths and clears up what's fact and what's fiction. Click here to read the article.
	What is Leadership: Practical Tips from Three Local Leaders, Boston University Corporate Education Center Often people can’t describe leadership, but they know it when they see it. In this article, three local leaders describe what they think about the best leadership—not in theory, but in practice in today’s organizations. Click here to read the article.
	Priorities for Organizational Infrastructure, Mass High Tech Do your eyes glaze over when people talk about organizational infrastructure? You’re not alone. For many of us, the thrill of leadership comes from inventing products, seizing opportunities, and anticipating consumer needs. Yet, building infrastructure is like going to the doctor: you can survive without it, but you’ll be better for it. Click here to download the Mass High Tech article.
	Assess, Adjust for the New Year, Women's Business Boston What can leaders do to prepare for success in the new year? This article outlines four critical questions to ask now. Click here to download.
	Building a High Performing Team NEW! Teams pull the weight in organizations. They perform routine transactions, collaborate on cross-functional initiatives, and tackle tricky and complex problems. One leader realized that her team, while good, needed to be extraordinary in order to achieve company goals. This case study outlines how this team made the journey from good to great. Click here to download.
	Aligning an Entire Organization To Achieve Ambitious Goals Feel like your organization is haphazard and working ad hoc? The power of an aligned, focused workforce is tremendous. One company successfully harnessed this power by aligning the entire organization around several mission-critical strategies. This case study outlines how they did it. Click here to download.
	Mobilizing an Organization to Achieve CMM Level 3 Implementing major strategic initiatives this year? The challenges of successful execution are great: projects must be managed closely, business cases developed properly, and people aligned correctly. One organization, up against just this challenge, beat the odds to accomplish a major process improvement effort in record time. This case study outlines some of the success factors that contributed to their accomplishment. Click here to download.
	Return on Investment: Why Talking about Values Makes Sense The story is familiar to anyone in technology: IT and business leaders clashing over how a project should progress. It happens all the time and causes project delays, overruns, conflict, and ill will. Sometimes these conflicts are due to miscommunication. Often, though, these conflicts stem from a deeper difference: that of values. This case study shows how simple conversations about values can result in huge returns for project performance and success. Click here to download.
	Change Capacity Survey This sample Change Capacity Survey, recently featured by Gartner in its report on "Planning and Managing Change in the IT Organization," helps organizations understand the challenges to successful change in the organization. Click here to download.
	Preparing to Execute. This tool helps businesses identify capabilities needed for successful execution. Click here to download.
	Group Exchange Analysis A helpful exercise to prepare for successful cross-boundary collaboration. Click here to download.
	About Alignment with Partering Resources This one-pager describes how Partnering Resources helps build aligned, high-performing organizations. Click here to download.
	About Adaptablity with Partnering Resources This one-pager describes how Partnering Resources helps grow adaptable, customer-responsive organizations. Click here to download.
	About Achievement with Partnering Resources This one-pager describes how Partnering Resources helps build achieving, execution-oriented organizations. Click here to download.
	About Assessment with Partnering Resources This one-pager describes how assessments work with Partnering Resources. This is a good read if you're interested in assessment or in working with us. Click here to download.
	About Nonprofit Strategic Planning with Partnering Resources This one-pager describes our strategic planning work with nonprofit organizations. This is designed for nonprofit leaders curious about how we do strategic planning.  Click here to download.