Dance Lessons: Six Steps to Great Partnerships in Business & Life

In today's increasingly complex business world, partnerships are continually becoming more important and more ubiquitous. Along with those traditional relationships customarily forged between colleagues working for the same company, however, the associations crafted between customers, vendors, unions, and even competitors may actually be the ones that ultimately make or break a business venture. And Chip R. Bell and Heather Shea, consultants as well as top-level executives, believe that the usually neglected "irrational, illogical and emotional" aspects of such coalitions are the real keys to their success. They dissect the heart and soul of these critical alliances in Dance Six Steps to Great Partnerships in Business & Life, and in the process offer pragmatic suggestions for forming, maintaining, and, when necessary, dissolving them. Building on the metaphor identified in their title, prolific author Bell and former dancer-actor Shea convincingly point out the unexpected similarities that exist between partnerships in the boardroom and partnerships on the dance floor--and persuasively outline the benefits that can be derived from proficiency at each. "Partnerships are forever becoming and never complete," they write. "Like great dances, great partnerships are never perfect; there is always another lesson to be learned, another routine to be practiced." --Howard Rothman