In order to achieve cross-functionality, our bonds with our partner organizations had to become as strong as those between the individuals on our operational teams. Too often we viewed our partners solely in terms of what we could get and give. We began to make progress when we started looking at these relationships as just that: relationships—parts of a network, not cogs in a machine with outputs and inputs. The kinds of relationships we needed have roots that go deeper than simply bartering. If we could develop that kind of understanding between partners, then one day down the line in a
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