Relationships at the top were cordial and informal and yet the partnership seemed unable to deliver the desired benefits. The talk of shared priorities and common goals never seemed to get past the talking. There were some isolated examples of joint initiatives but in general progress was slow, glacially slow.

There were several reasons for this. The organisation's history was of one-sided partnerships, using their size or financial muscle to get their own way. And a tendency to shunt costs when budgets were under pressures.   The shared priorities and common goals spoken of in cabinet and at the boardroom level were in fact not an exact match. Each organisation had a number of shared priorities but a different top three! Managers further down the hierarchy were suspicious of their counterparts, didn't want to make the first move, couldn't see any advantage in an investment of time and energy when they were already overstretched. Didn't, couldn't, wouldn't build up a personal relationship with their counterparts, preferring to leave that sort of thing to the executive level/senior managers.