Breakthroughs for Business Partners

Getting It Together

When two or more professionals join forces to run a business, they’ve usually trained for years to become experts in their field (law, engineering, consulting, advertising, etc.) but not on how to manage a team, how to attract clients, or how to get along. Partnerships are like marriages: established with good intentions, but, as the years go by, tested by unforeseen challenges, misunderstandings, and transitions.

Some partners get along beautifully, but struggle to structure and manage the business. Others are business-savvy, but perplexed (or exasperated) by their colleagues, who don’t seem to share their vision for the firm. Others, when faced with a planned or unplanned transition, such as a retiring founder, are uncertain how to proceed to ensure the survival of the company.

Whether your business is owned by family members or by partners who are related only by their commitment to each other, to their clients, and to their staff, we can help you with whatever challenges are keeping you up at night, so that you can get back to doing the work that originally brought you together.

What we do:

• conduct a needs assessment by meeting individually and confidentially with each partner and, if needed, additional key staff
• present an action plan to address partner concerns
• facilitate partner meetings to observe how the partners communicate and interact, and to educate them about how to increase their awareness of interpersonal dynamics (and, for three or more partners, team dynamics), how to improve their communication skills, and how to run more effective meetings
• provide short training sessions and presentations, such as our thought-provoking presentation on triangulation in the workplace, something commonly seen with partnerships
• design and facilitate team retreats to improve trust, communication, and alignment
• facilitate a half-day team workshop using the FIRO-B assessment, a no-nonsense way to understand group dynamics and potential sources of conflict