Subject Line: The 200-mile partnership that looked perfect on paper and failed in practice
The examples in this newsletter are drawn from real partnership experiences. Names and identifying details have been altered to protect privacy.
Who's This For
I'm writing this for anyone who has tried to make a multi-institutional partnership work and discovered that good intentions weren't enough.
You've brought together partners from different organizations, different sectors, different regions. Everyone agrees the collaboration makes sense. The complementary strengths are obvious. The combined resources could achieve what neither could alone.
And then the partnership stalls. Not because of bad actors, but because of invisible frictions: different IRB timelines, conflicting IP policies, mismatched indirect cost rates, unspoken assumptions about credit allocation, organizational cultures that don't translate.
This issue is about making the invisible visible before it becomes an obstacle.