Building Trust in Business Partnerships
Jim Harrison and Gary T. Furlong
If you ask anyone to name the most important elements of any long-term, satisfying relationship, trust is usually near the top of any list. This is certainly true for personal relationships, but it is also true for business relationships.
The ability to quickly establish and build trust is becoming even more important in today's business environment, where partnerships and strategic alliances are common practice. Companies and organizations are strategically focusing more and more on their core competencies and high value activities. They are looking to partners – both external and internal – to contribute added value through complementary services, products, and expertise. Adding value from partners allows companies, business units, and specific departments to innovate and to differentiate themselves from their competitors. And the foundation of these successful partnerships is trust. In this article, we outline a method through which trust can be formed quickly and proactively, and sustained over time.
As the year draws to a close, I would like to reflect on some of the highlights for the IRC. This fall, we reorganized our certificate series and launched a new Advanced HR Certificate. We celebrated our rich history, with the 75th anniversary of industrial relations at Queen's. We also attended a number of trade shows, met the professional development needs of our HR, LR, and OD practitioners by offering programs from coast to coast, and we continued to extend our presence in the Caribbean.
On behalf of the IRC, I would like to thank our client community for its continued support of our programming and practitioner-focused research. We value our relationships with our participants and their sponsor organizations, and I am looking forward to continuing to build these relationships in 2013. We have some interesting projects planned for the new year, including a new IRC website and practitioner-focused research initiatives. This spring, we are also launching two new programs – HR Decision Making and HR Strategy.
We have released several new articles this fall, aimed at identifying key issues and challenges faced by LR, HR, and OD practitioners. I encourage you to review these articles:
This spring, Queen's IRC attended several trade shows. When individuals visited our information booth, they were invited to enter their business card in a draw. Prizes included Starbucks gift cards and three resources: Switchpoints, authored by Peter Edwards, Gary Furlong's Conflict Resolution Toolbox, and Made in Canada, written by Amal Henein and Francoise Morissette.
We would like to congratulate the following individuals who have been selected to receive a gift from the IRC.
From the CTHRC Annual Tourism HR Forum in Toronto:
Colleen Boudreau, Laura J. Allen, and Michelle Cosh
From the SAHRP Provincial Conference in Regina:
Lyle Acoose, Kevin Daoust, and Caroline Graves
From the HRMAM Conference and Exhibition in Winnipeg:
Karen Howard, Lily Bale-Feldman, and Diana Chomichuk
From the Top Employers Summit in Victoria:
Dara Pinke, Eric Perez, and Brenda Kriss
Of course, we would also like to thank all of the individuals who stopped by our booth to visit with us. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming programs!
