I am currently helping two organisations. One is medium size, growing fast, and established. The other is brand new, smaller, has multiple groups, and will grow to multiples of the first one after a few years. If org 2 was created today, org 1 would just be one of its many groups.
The leaders of org 1 want to use their knowledge of the market to get a place at the table of org 2 and influence their operations. Org 2 wants to develop as its own org (but welcomes useful information from org 1).
I hated working with org 1, and I welcome org 2's development. I am having a great experience working with org 2. However I can't leave org 1 behind. For my day job, I need good relationships in both.
I want org 1 not to meddle with org 2, and I don't want org 1 in my daily business with org 2 if it's not org 1 business.
To defend org 2 and my own interests I could end up antagonising org 1. But I do need a healthy relationship with org 1.
So the question is: how do I keep pushing back on org 1's ambitions, while avoiding a breakdown in the relationship?