A partnership must be both predictable and unpredictable

In order to gain support and build trust a partnership needs to be predictable. It needs to set reassuringly worthwhile objectives and use consistent, tried and tested ways of working that will help it achieve them. In many ways it needs to be quite traditional in the way it presents itself and its activities.

 

But many partnerships do not really know what they can achieve, or how they might best go about it, until the various partners have started working together. For this reason a partnership’s activities and goals can and should be subject to unpredictability. In short, a partnership needs to be not only credible and reassuring but also creative and dynamic.    

Case study

Leeds City Council worked with various partners to set up a system of ‘Youth Hubs’. These created central points that offered a range of services to young people. The project needed to be professionally run and compliant with good practice in order to attract funding. It also needed to gain the involvement of young people so that they would feel some ownership of the hubs’ activities and therefore be encouraged to take advantage of the services on offer. 

To obtain funds it was important to prepare and submit bids that were compliant with the funders’ requirements, but the proposals contained within the bids needed to be attractive and meaningful to the young people who would benefit from the hubs’ services. 

Rather than merely consulting young people for their views the project made young people partners in the endeavour and asked them to take the lead in writing and presenting the bids. They were offered help and support with the bidding process, but the ideas and approaches contained within the bids were generated, developed and presented by the young people themselves. 

The bids were successful, the hubs were set up and young people began using the services. 

The success of this project was due to its ability to marry predictable, compliant and consistent good practice with the unpredictable, less compliant creativity of young people.

 

 

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Bite-size pieces: use the delphi technique

This technique is especially useful for partnerships that are widely spread geographically. An e-mail is sent to all those involved in the partnership asking them to evaluate the effectiveness of the partnership so far and identify those aspects that they think are of most significance. Then all the replies are collated and put into list form. These lists are then sent out to the same people as before, asking them to reply with their top ten most significant items. These replies are again collated and listed. These lists of ‘top ten’ items are sent out to the same people again, with an additional request that they reply with their top three items. This process of collecting, collating, disseminating and filtering responses can be repeated as many times as is deemed appropriate and useful. 

For maximum effectiveness this exercise needs to be followed by a meeting or conference that brings together all those who have contributed their ideas. They can then discuss and analyse the results in detail and think about ways to address the key issues identified.

For more about this technique go to http://www.mycoted.com/Delphi 

Sleeping with the Enemy - Achieving Collaborative Success:
          
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Exploit collaborative capital

Creating a reputation for being committed to working in partnership with other players in an industry or sector is of immense value.

New biotechnology companies seek out well known and well established biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with which to collaborate. Being associated with these trusted players helps address the legitimacy and credibility issues that automatically attach themselves to most new ventures. It can also help them gain additional influence within their sector and attract increased funding from investors. 

The Italian oil company Eni has a long standing reputation for seeking to forge alliances with African national oil companies. The fact that they did this first, at a time when other international oil companies showed little or no interest, and have consistently maintained and developed this approach over many decades, has made them a partner of choice for many national oil companies.

The IT company Intel has gained much collaborative capital from its high profile and highly successful history of collaborations with others from within its sector.

Being involved in fruitful collaborations with key competitors and others of present or potential significance provides companies with collaborative capital that is as valuable as money in the bank. Organisations can use this capital to enhance their legitimacy and credibility, gain influence within their sector or industry and become a trusted partner of choice for their competitors.

For more about collaboration go to: Sleeping-with-the-Enemy-Achieving-Collaborative-Success-2nd-Edition

Bite-size pieces: a partnership must focus on short and long-term issues at the same time

When a partnership is formed it is often in response to some very pressing need that individual organisations alone have not been able to address effectively. As a consequence of this, short-term aims and concerns tend to clamour for attention. It is, however, a partnership’s longer-term strategic aims that are most likely to make the real difference in terms of whether or not a partnership is truly effective in its endeavours. Therefore a partnership delays dealing with these longer-term aims at its peril.

When ‘Community Links’ worked in partnership with others to set up a Social Enterprise Zone in Newham they had many pressing issues that needed to be addressed in order to get local people out of the poverty trap and contributing to the development of their community. They also knew that any advances they made would be very short-lived if not embraced over the longer-term by mainstream organisations.

 

The simple act of inviting someone from a mainstream public organisation (the Inland Revenue) to work with them helped address both short and long-term goals. They gained key expertise that helped address short-term issues around dealing with the informal economy and encouraging people away from benefits, and they also created a conduit into a key organisation that would help them achieve their long-term aim of cementing new ideas and practices into the mainstream.

 

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Encouraging and developing emergent leadership

Encouraging and developing emergent leadership advantageous to a partnership

 

One of the key responsibilities of a partnership is to spot, encourage and develop emergent leadership. It is a common trait of partnerships that as their work develops so too do the partners themselves. Those that perhaps started on the fringes of a partnership can begin to exhibit a particular affinity, passion, or expertise for a specific area of the partnership’s work. Once identified, such individuals or organisations need to be encouraged further into the partnership to take up leadership roles consistent with their skills, abilities, motivations and passions.

These emergent leaders must be supported with appropriate training, development and other needed resources, but they also need careful management. Emergent leaders are only advantageous to a partnership if the activities they undertake and the results they achieve are consistent with its purpose and goals, so plenty of dialogue needs to take place between the partnership and its emergent leaders to ensure a shared understanding of and commitment to the activities and results required.


For more about collaboration go to: Sleeping-with-the-Enemy-Achieving-Collaborative-Success-2nd-Edition

 

 

Identifying and managing the stakeholders of your partnership

Here is a tool to help you identify and manage the stakeholders of your partnership:
 

Stage 1

Now that you have identified your major partners you need to think more widely and consider all those people and organisations affected by your partnership.

What people/organisations do you need as a resource?

What people/organisations are affected by your partnership?

What people/organisations are on the sidelines but have an interest?

What people/organisations feel they have a right to be involved?

Stage 2

Now think more deeply about your stakeholders. Divide your stakeholders into three areas, those in the Public, Private and Voluntary Sectors. Then consider each stakeholder against the following questions:

Who wants to see the partnership succeed?

Who wants the partnership to fail?

Who is offering the partnership support?

Whose support is necessary for the partnership to succeed?

Who is offering the partnership resources?

Whose success does the partnership affect?                                           

Whose success affects the partnership?

Who benefits from the partnership’s work?  

Who might be damaged by the work of the partnership?

 

 

Stage 3: The power catgories - now that you have identified your stakeholders and considered them against the above questions, place them within what you consider to be the most appropriate categories below:

 

Low interest and low power – you need only put minimal effort into keeping these stakeholders on board, but do not forget them entirely.

 

High interest and low power – you need to actively keep these people informed, as their interest will probably prove useful to the partnership at some point.

 

Low interest and high power – it is important to keep these people satisfied. Even though they have low interest this could change if they are ignored, irritated or angered. 

 

High interest and high power – these people are key to your partnership. If they are not already, they may need to be partners in the initiative. It is important to keep these people informed, satisfied, and appropriately involved.

 

When you have completed the above process go back to your initial list of major partners and review it. Are there any stakeholders that on reflection should be invited to join the partnership?

 

 

For more about collaboration go to: Sleeping-with-the-Enemy-Achieving-Collaborative-Success-2nd-Edition

 

 

 

 

 

Bite-size pieces: think PMI

When evaluating the on-going work of a partnership encourage people to explore what has been positive about its work, what the minuses have been and what has been interesting. Most of us are used to thinking in a binary way, looking only for the positives and minuses in a situation and then making decisions about how to maximise the one and minimise the other. The PMI technique (developed by Edward de Bono) encourages people to think about the day-to-day activities of a partnership in an additional way. What aspects are interesting or unique about a partnership’s activities and results? What can we learn from these and how can we make use of them?

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