The rising popularity of research partnerships between practitioners and scholars raises questions about the efficacy of current research models for in situ research that yield timely and practical results to practitioners at the same time as they meet scholarly requirements and continue to grow the knowledge base in the field of HRD. Three characteristics--emergence, elasticity, and nonlinearity--are suggested as fundamental elements of new models. Tensions between the worlds of the scholar and the practitioner are discussed and concrete actions that would facilitate the development of new models are suggested.