New Book by Kate Vitasek

The Vested Way

Five Rules for Achieving the Impossible

Five rules. Extraordinary results. Grounded in 20+ years of research and adopted by leading companies across five continents. This is the book for your most important relationships.

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$The Vested Way by Kate Vitasek - Five Rules for Achieving the Impossible$

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Most partnerships don't fail because of bad intentions. They fail because expectations aren't aligned. The Vested Way shows you how to fix that and build relationships that last.

Chester Elton

#1 New York Times bestselling author

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Innovation requires the kind of deep collaboration Kate Vitasek maps out in The Vested Way. This book shows a blueprint of how to transform your most critical partnerships.

Jayshree Seth

3M Chief Science Advocate & author of The Heart of Science trilogy

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The Vested model redefines collaboration by shifting the focus from individual gain to shared success, a breakthrough approach that fosters trust and alignment between partners.

Monika Kosman

COO, Thinkers50

Proven Global Impact. Measurable Results.

The Vested Movement by the Numbers

Companies Embracing
Vested Methodology

People Trained
5,200 Paid · 7,800 Free

Initiatives
Completed

Compatibility &
Trust Assessments

Certified Deal
Architects Worldwide

Formal
Case Studies

Books from University
of Tennessee Faculty

Translated Languages
Spanish · French · Slovenian

Articles
Published

Harvard Business
Review Articles

UT Executive Ed Courses
7 Online · 2 Live · 1 Distance

Universities Teaching
Vested Principles

The heart of Vested is shifting from What's-in-it-for-Me to What's-in-it-for-We. Grounded in 20+ years of research and field tested by some of the world's most trusted companies, Vested is not just a nice theory. It's a proven approach for building winning partnerships.

Kate Vitasek

Us Versus Them

It feels like us versus them is everywhere. At work. At home. In society at large.

We face challenges that require collaboration, yet too often we fall back on self protective habits. We negotiate positions. We guard information. When we win, it is often a loss for the other person.

The result is predictable. People work hard, but not toward the same outcome.

The Vested Way offers a different path.

The book is filled with powerful examples of real organizations that are challenging how they partner to achieve results that are seemingly impossible. For example, how the U.S. Department of Energy and Kaiser Hill changed how they worked to clean up the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility 65 years ahead of schedule and $30 billion under budget. Or how Dell reduced costs by 42% while its supplier increased profits by as much as 10x.

The book starts with the foundation, because that is where most relationships either get stronger or begin to break down: trust, transparency and cultural fit. Then it walks through the five Vested rules that help partners get aligned and stay aligned.

You do not need a billion dollar contract to use this book. The research comes from complex strategic relationships, but the principles apply anywhere people need to align around a shared outcome: at work, at home and in the communities they care about.

My tip? Work through the book with the person or team you most need to align with. The best results rarely come from one sided effort.

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Inside the Book

10 Things You'll Learn in This Book

The foundations, rules and tools behind high performing partnerships

Shift from us versus them to a what's in it for We mindset

Build the foundation every partnership needs: trust, transparency and cultural fit

Recognize when a relationship should deepen and when it should stay transactional

Align around outcomes instead of managing transactions

Focus on the what, not the how, to unlock better performance

Define success in ways both parties can measure

Replace zero sum negotiation with gainsharing that rewards the right behavior

Stay aligned when pressure, conflict or change test the relationship

Use all five rules together — cherry picking won't deliver extraordinary results

Apply the Vested principles at work, at home and in the relationships that matter most

The Vested Story

How It Started

Want the fuller story behind the methodology and movement? Visit VestedWay.com

Hi, I'm Kate Vitasek. For more than 20 years, I have researched what makes highly collaborative relationships work and why so many fail.

One of my first real wake up calls came when I moved from working for Microsoft to working for its largest supplier. Sitting on the other side of the table changed how I saw everything. It helped me realize that much of what feels personal in a relationship is often structural.

The heart of the Vested movement is a desire to move beyond us versus them and the kind of collaboration where 1+1 equals 11.

There is a reason the cover of this book features birds flying in V formation. Each bird benefits from the uplift of the one ahead. They conserve energy, rotate leadership and go farther together than they could alone. That is the Vested way.

Later, when I joined the University of Tennessee, I had the opportunity to study some of the world's most successful business partnerships, and that research eventually evolved into a methodology called Vested.

Over time, Vested grew from university research into a global movement, much like Lean, Six Sigma and Agile before it. I've taught the rules to over 13,000 leaders from more than 900 organizations, and in 2025, Vested was selected by Thinkers50 as one of the Breakthrough Ideas in management.

Leading organizations across five continents have adopted Vested to transform how they work with their most strategic partners, including Intel, bp, JLL, EY, IBM, Securitas, and the Canadian government. Today, 48 universities teach Vested principles, our research has been featured four times in Harvard Business Review, and what started as a study funded by the U.S. Air Force has become a cultural movement transforming how business is done.

Vested is about building relationships where both sides have a real stake in each other's success. At its core, Vested is about moving beyond us versus them and choosing a what's in it for We mindset. I wrote The Vested Way to make that kind of collaboration practical, usable and real.

You'll see real stories and case studies throughout the book, because I want you to see what's possible when people choose to collaborate in a highly effective way.

My ask is simple. Do not fall into the trap of doing nothing. I am confident you will find at least one insight you can use to make an important relationship better.

About Kate Vitasek

Researcher · Author · Speaker

Kate Vitasek is a world-recognized authority on highly collaborative business relationships. She is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, where her original research, funded by the U.S. Air Force, evolved into the Vested methodology now practiced on five continents.

Kate is the author of 11 books, and her research has been featured four times in Harvard Business Review. She has trained over 13,000 leaders from 900+ organizations, and her work is now taught at 48 universities worldwide.

She is a sought-after speaker known for her ability to make complex ideas practical and accessible, whether she's advising Fortune 500 executives or helping partners repair fractured relationships.

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