Partnership - Pete Machalek

Описание: The world of professional services – and of Architectural / Engineering / Construction projects in particular – is full of partnerships, both literally and figuratively. And different players in those relationships often have different readings of how those partnerships could and should work – which can create a mess.

In today’s post, Pete doesn’t necessarily clean up the mess, but he does point to the possibility of it, and opens it up to conversation – how do you optimize the partnerships you must have to sustain and grow your career, your organization, and the projects you work on?

Share your thoughts below, and to explore how this might impact you and your organization, contact us here.

Transcript:
Sage Presence has existed for 23 years, and for that entire time, we have been a partnership. Dean and I have been 50/50 co-owning partners for the duration of this organization. As a result, I think it's been a very good thing for both of us. I say this because we both approach it as a partnership.
As I think of the World At Large, especially the Professional Service world and the architecture, engineering, and construction world, I believe the basic structure of everything that goes on in that world is a partnership. There are organizations hooking up to work on projects all the time, and from my perspective, the best way to look at those hookups is as a partnership. I say this recognizing that in reality, it isn't always naturally that way. Very often, contractors hire subcontractors, which necessarily has to create something of a power dynamic, kind of similar to boss and employee.
But I think as this world keeps moving forward and as the generations evolve, we're headed into a world where everybody wants to be thought of as an equal partner. It's kind of like back in the day when marriages came together; in general, the male had most, if not all, of the power, and the female had less, if not none, of the power. But as things have evolved, now it's become more and more an equal partnership. I think the World At Large is becoming more and more an equal partnership.
And I think because of that, there is a generational tremor. Older folks who grew up in a world where seniors had more power and juniors had less power are kind of getting rattled. Juniors of today are assuming more power, even though maybe the seniors don't feel like they have earned that power yet. So, I want to open this up as a conversation. I would love to get your thoughts on this. What do you see in terms of how the world is thinking about relationships? How do you see how things are shaping up now as compared to what you've experienced in the past? What is the definition of partnership?