In PAE's third and final roundtable of the COBID Partnership series, folks from both COBID-certified firms and PAE’s own team came together to discuss a path forward in developing an effective, mutually beneficial Partnership Program. The goal of this meeting was to take what we learned from our two first discussions, which you can read about here and here, and build on those themes to investigate how to best work together.

While our Partnership Program is still under development, we have found a few guiding principles that will shape our movement forward:

Authentic and clear communication paves the way – both PAE and our partner firms have a responsibility to respect each other and commit to honest communication to facilitate growth and collaboration. Open conversations build trust and lasting relationships while efficiently uncovering things we need to address together.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach – our partner firms are each as unique in the scopes of service and expertise they offer as they are in their business and production resources. Because of this, our goal will be to meet partners where they are at, developing plans that address their individual strengths and needs.

Partnership is one key element of a larger responsibility we have to the community – PAE is proud to work with our COBID-certified partners, and we share in the vision presented by COBID certification: It is vitally important that we advance diversity and inclusion within the AEC industry. As we put together this program, we also plan to continue supporting internal and external DEI efforts, and to listen and learn about issues at the intersection of business, race, and gender.

If you are interested in learning more about our roundtable series, PAE's upcoming COBID Partnership Program, or if you would like to share ideas on how we can make COBID collaborations more robust in Oregon, I'd love to hear from you.

Originally published on LinkedIn by McKenzie Richardson.