Societal challenges are dynamic, requiring inter-organizational approaches to be flexible and adaptive. However, there has been surprisingly little focus on how cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) addressing these challenges navigate transitions to sustain their contextual relevance. Managing change in such contexts is inherently complex; efforts to “adapt the plane while flying it” risk disrupting societal interventions and undermining hard-earned trust, highlighting the need for a delicate balance between stability and change. We qualitatively investigate how partners of a CSP in humanitarian relief managed the interplay of change and stability to sustain the partnership’s relevance over time. The findings unveil a multi-stage process model of partnership transitions, intertwining forward-moving scope-building loops with downward-moving trust-capacity-building loops, and expose innovative practices for balancing change and stability. This model offers valuable contributions to the study of CSPs and organizations navigating transitions in high-reliability contexts.
