Partnering Intelligence Creating Value for Your Business by Building Strong Alliances By Stephen M. Dent, Second Edition, 2004, Davies-Black Publishing 282 pages, softback Price: $21.95

Contents

Part One: Rediscovering Partnering - Transitioning from "Me" to "We"
	1. Partnering Intelligence What It Is and Why It's Important 2. Know Thyself What is Your PQ? 3. Analyzing Your Results on the PQ Assessment Using the Attribute Analysis 4. Overview of the Partnership Continuum" A Blueprint for Successful Partnerships
Part Two: Developing Your PQ - Enhancing Your Partnering Skills
	5. Self-Disclosure and Feedback The Importance of Two-Way Communication 6. Win-Win Orientation From Conflict to Synergy 7. Ability to Trust Creating Trust in Your Partnership 8. Future Orientation Escaping the Trap of the Past 9. Comfort with Change Skills for Coping with Transition 10. Comfort with Interdependence Learning the Virtues of Interdependence
Part Three: The Partnership Continuum - A Model for Increasing Your PQ
	11. Assess Stage What Do You Want?   12. Explore Stage Meeting the Right Partner 13. Initiate Stage Reaping the Benefits of Partnership   14. Commit Stage Formalizing the Commitment 15. Coming Full Circle Hallmarks of a Successful Partnership

Excerpts from Chapter One:

Partnerships encourage creative innovations for improved product design and quality. When two separate groups merge, they bring with them different perspectives on how to accomplish something. Successful partnerships work with this diversity to produce a hybrid that is, in essence, the best of both. The key to reaping these benefits is creating an environment that stimulates creativity and risk-taking - one in which people feel safe trying out new concepts without fear of reprimand or punishment. The outcome is an innovation that neither group could have produced separately. It is a product of the vitality, creativity, diversity, and synergy that partnerships are capable of generating. (Page 13)
 
Knowing your partnering quotient and the attributes necessary for managing the partnership is only half of what you need for increasing your Partnering Intelligence. The other half is understanding the process of creating healthy, trusting, and mutually beneficial partnerships. Partnerships don't just happen. They are designed. The Partnership Continuum Model is the blueprint for creating successful partnerships. This model has been used successfully by thousands of people. It offers you and your partner a tested step-by-step approach to developing your partnership. (Page 23)

Excerpts from Chapter Four:

Partnerships are systems, not simply a collection of parts. You would not expect the human body to function properly if you removed a piece of the "human system" - the heart, for instance - and you cannot expect a partnership to function if it's deprived of one of its components either. You can't work solely on a task and ignore the relationship and expect a successful outcome. This is why we need to approach partnerships from a holistic perspective.

The Partnership Continuum Model represents a formula for a successful partnership. We describe the process developmentally - as in "after this happens, this can happen." It's like the process of making an automobile: the design and modeling stages must precede the assembly stage. The Partnership Continuum Model guides us through the incremental stages involved in creating successful partnerships. . . . [T]he model has three official components:

• The Stages of Relationship Development
• The Stages of Partnership Development
• The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle

We'll walk through each component. We'll explore the types of behaviors you can expect to see at each stage and describe the activities that need to occur before people can move on to the next step. (Pages 67-68)

Excerpt from Chapter Ten:

Interdependence can be defined as two (or more) independent entities working together as partners without losing their separate identities. Interdependent partnerships succeed because each party needs assistance in achieving its goals and each contributes to satisfying the needs of the other partner. Approaching a partnership with the hope of simply buying a needed capability is not only shortsighted and naïve - it can have dire consequences. (Page 168)

Partnering Intelligence Creating Value for Your Business by Building Strong Alliances By Stephen M. Dent, Second Edition, 2004, Davies-Black Publishing 282 pages, softback Price: $21.95

About the Author
Stephen M. Dent is a leading pioneer in Partnering Intelligence theory, research, and application with more than 25 years of experience helping companies improve performance. As founding partner of Partnership Continuum, Inc., he works with companies as they build partnering capabilities and cultural infrastructures that support a partnering culture. In recognition of his groundbreaking work, Dent received the US WEST Chairman's Award and the President's Cup award for developing partnerships between the company and its union, the Communications Workers of America. His consulting career includes working with such leading organizations as Bank of America, GE Capital Services, NASA, and Wells Fargo Bank.