The difference between good intentions and measurable results is structure

We live in very exciting times.  In today's world, many people and organizations have woken up to the fact that all of our systems, whether in the social or private sector, are interconnected and that in order to realize dynamic growth or overcome complex challenges going it alone is no longer an option.

At the same time, anyone that has been involved in partnerships, inter-organizational collaborations, or task forces can recount one or more experiences where collaborative endeavors with tremendous promise failed to realize their potential.  Ambitious goals, good intentions and even highly talented contributors are not enough to sustain an effective joint venture when you take into account all of the moving parts, competing priorities, and external challenges that produce the friction that can grind great opportunities to inauspicious halts.

There is a scenario, however, where a team of people, organizations, and companies can be brought together to make powerful things emerge and succeed!  A dynamic where the players are clear about the goals, confident about their roles and opportunities, and are free to act within a simple and defined shared operating environment that promotes communication, accountability, and most importantly, results. 

We call the practice of creating these conditions for successful partnership Collaboration Architecture.  The Topline team has made the art and science of rigorously facilitating, designing, and problem solving effective collaborations, as defined by results as well as relationship a core area of our work.  Not only do we bring decades of combined expertise at local, state and national levels in developing novel and unexpected alliances to this work, it is a passion that underlies everything we do. 

As has often been said by sociologists and songwriters alike, we are indeed better together.  We are at our best however, when together we move beyond platitude and into performance and success through powerful partnerships that work.  Indeed, this is what Topline Associates is all about.