More than a decade ago the manner in which the North Dakota educational community related to the state legislature changed suddenly and dramatically. The North Dakota School Boards Association (NDSBA) employed a new executive director. Administrators in the state created a new entity, the North Dakota Council of School Administrators (NDCSA), and secured a new executive secretary. The North Dakota Education Association (NDEA) expanded its staff and diversified its services. The agendas of these groups suggested collaborative approaches to problem solving, and the mix of personalities permitted that collaboration to occur. In theoretical terms, North Dakota progressed from a "locally based disparate" to "statewide monolithic" linkage in a very brief period. The actors in the"North Dakota monolith" were those predicted in Iannaccone's (1967) theory. The scope and nature of collaboration among individuals and organizations and the resulting achievements are detailed. Each of the leaders of the three dominant state education associations was interviewed with a 17-question structured interview instrument in the spring of 1986. The interviews with these leaders, actual observations of their behavior in various settings and the products of that behavior, along with socioeconomic and demographic characteristics in the state, are related to current organizational theory. (MLF)