PSL has provided tens of these workshops to provide effective solutions for building better partnerships, during the last 4 years.

• In one case, over many years the relationship between two companies had been described as “erratic”. So PSL was commissioned to run this workshop with the purpose of developing an action plan to take the relationship forward in a way that would provide future benefit to both parties.

• The situation between two partnering organizations had been expected to grow into an Alliance, but instead was mired in litigation with each blaming the other for the failure. The workshop allowed the participating teams to take the steps that led to them achieving a milestone on time (for the first time ever) and avoiding the expense of litigation.

• Two organizations had signed a partnering agreement some six months beforehand, but progress was impaired by continuous fire-fighting tactical problems. PSL were brought in to raise the bar, so that the partnering could achieve the expected short-term results and also to determine what other activities could be brought in to create further joint benefits.

• In the NHS, the creation of ‘Trusts’ meant that participating organizations had separate objectives. PSL used SERP style workshops to allow them to uncover common issues that could be jointly implemented to improve levels of patient and financial performance.
These varied from situations that were simple – the management teams needed to start to communicate effectively – to the more complex – where separate strategies were being invoked to tackle identical community issues.