This isn’t about sprinting towards the end of a contract. This is about driving technology forward and building strong long-term partnerships so we can do work that matters.
When creating meaningful value that drives growth, every phase and detail counts. Irfan Godinjak, Head of Service Delivery at our engineering hub in Bosnia and Herzegovina, shared the approaches we have as a company to fortifying our Long Term > Short Term Core Value with a focus on building firm relationships and partnerships that last.
The Stages of a Successful Partnership
“Any relationship, private or business, is a process built from day one. To benefit both sides, it needs time to create itself on the pillars of trust, understanding, and cooperation. Only then does it become a partnership to be maintained and nourished.” - Irfan shared at the start of his story. Guided by our Long Term > Short Term Core Value, Irfan leads us through a simple and useful Tuckman’s Team Model divided into phases and applied to Symphony’s approach to building partnerships.
Forming Initially, partnerships are created out of a mutual desire to drive new value. You are setting the tone and foundation of the relationship while everyone gets to know each other, the models of work, the organization, and future prospects. Leadership and guidance are key in this phase. If this phase is right, we set the tone for building a partnership.
Storming This stage reveals all the bumps in the road, but it is important to acknowledge them and work together on finding common ground. The teams learn about the company culture, way of working, short and long term goals, and if they can find ways to agree on tactics and strategy, then we move to the next phase.
Norming In this stage, the team develops cohesion, and the setup changes from a teammate in charge to shared leadership. Teammates learn they have to trust each other and cooperate for a shared goal.
Performing When we reach this phase, the teams are highly flexible and independent, and the work just flows better. This is a very productive stage based on trust and collaboration and finding the optimal solutions together.
Irfan mentions onsite team collocations as a crucial factor when it comes to collaboration. “The frequent visits, shared lunches, and working space give true meaning to collaboration, and you feel the partnership you are building can really flourish. This gives us the chance to get closer to the client, understand their needs and challenges, suggest solutions, and directly impact our mutual growth.”
Strong partnerships are essential on our journey towards becoming solution providers. What pushes us forward is stepping up in every aspect, getting involved in the early stages of the project by addressing challenges, and frequently communicating with clients. “At Symphony, we have always nourished a culture of openness and detailed feedback. Our creative mindset, outstanding technical solutions, and readiness to talk about the highs and lows sets us apart and gives real value to our clients.” - Irfan explained.
We motivate our people to be even more involved in ideation and directly influence the client’s decision-making process. In turn, the client starts seeing us as trusted advisors and gives us a clean slate to work on to make the product better. Through collaborative discussions in cross-functional teams, we join forces with our clients in driving tangible results. This is what partnerships are all about.
The Long Run
When it comes to our future steps as a company, Irfan shared how our next phase is strengthening the Long Term > Short Term Value by moving further with a more proactive approach to our clients and fortifying our partner role by discussing the merit we bring beyond the technical scope.
Our starting point is to create a long-standing partnership with our clients while building a bond of trust. “In the final performing stage, our goal is smooth sailing with fewer ups and downs, steady output, and impacting outcomes. The work model we have with our existing clients is a great example of our efforts to move to this stage where we work together, and have the freedom to bring our research and ideas to the table while taking into account the many different angles to the problem. ”- Irfan added.
It is important to know that forming partnerships and good team dynamics is never linear. Teams will move back and forth, but when trust and collaboration are established, we can overcome any challenge to create lasting relationships that produce meaningful results.
