Operating Partner roundtables have always struck me as a bit like group therapy.

The format is almost predictable. Everyone goes around the table, venting:
• “The deal team doesn’t listen.”
• “The CEOs won’t follow through.”
• “We don’t have real authority.”
• “We’re treated like consultants on retainer.”

Nods of sympathy, stories swapped, maybe even a war wound or two. And then someone, usually the most seasoned in the room, sighs and says: “What we really need is better alignment.”

Translation: nobody has cracked the code on making the operating model actually work.

The reality is brutal. Most PE firms still don’t know what to do with their Operating Partners. They show up in three main ways:
• As a line item in the LP deck (“look, we have operating muscle”).
• As the emergency fire extinguisher for a broken portco.
• As the professional pasture for ex-consultants and ex-execs.

Rarely are they embedded as what they should be: a true operating system of the firm, integrated into sourcing, diligence, underwriting, execution, and exit planning.

And until that shift happens, these roundtables will keep sounding less like strategic forums and more like therapy circles for frustrated talent.

If you want to know whether a firm takes ops seriously, look at where the Operating Partner sits in the org chart. If they report into deal teams, you already have your answer.