The coordination layer between executives and administrative professionals sits below the org chart and above the calendar. When that layer is poorly calibrated, misalignment compounds quietly before it surfaces as something harder to fix. The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), based in Kansas City, Mo., released The Partnership Playbook on July 15, 2026, a dual-edition guide built specifically for both sides of that working relationship.
The dual-edition design
Publishing two separate volumes rather than one combined guide reflects a specific structural logic. The collaboration problem reads differently depending on which side of the working relationship you occupy: what an executive experiences as friction often registers differently to the administrative professional managing the same exchange. By splitting into two editions, IAAP can address each reader directly rather than writing for an averaged audience that doesn't quite exist.
What the guide is designed to fix
IAAP's stated purpose for The Partnership Playbook is to strengthen collaboration between administrative professionals and executives. Administrative work is the mechanism through which executive decisions get scheduled and tracked toward completion. When the two parties operate from different assumptions about authority and communication norms, those gaps tend to accumulate in the background before surfacing as something larger.
The dual-edition structure gives each party a framework to enter from their own position. Whether it produces a shared operating model in practice depends on whether both the executive and the administrative professional in a given working relationship actually read it. That is the load-bearing condition for any guide of this type.