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Partnership Evolution
By Mike Winer of 4Results Together
What is a Partnership?
A partnership generally consists of multiple organizations and individuals working together under a common vision. Who will be in the partnership varies from community to community, yet the purpose is universal: to create a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship to sustain results that are not possible alone.
A successful partnership often results in greater community involvement and capacity from which to make a difference in the lives of older adults. At the same time, partnership-building and sustainability present significant challenges by requiring buy-in, flexibility, leadership, resources and time.
Partnerships often begin with a few concerned individuals who agree to work together on an issue that is outside the scope of any single organization. A positive experience fosters participation and increasingly meets the interests of member organizations. Success in small, early initiatives builds trust, leading to discussion of outcomes, the formation of a strategic map and ultimately the creation of something larger and more collaborative.
Key Factors in Partnership-Building and Sustainability
Partnership is complex. Imagine everything you have to do within your organization to make it succeed, from governance, planning, resource development, and evaluation, to purchasing, program implementation and human resources. Now add no direct lines of authority and no traditional reward systems. Moreover, nearly all of the people involved are volunteers, most of whom have full-time jobs outside the partnership.
Still, that complexity can be managed one step at a time. Whether you are changing the focus of an existing partnership, strengthening what you are presently doing or forming a new collaboration, the Partnership Evolution section provides you with nine units to help your partnership succeed. The nine units are:
- Laying the Groundwork
- Tapping Unique Capabilities
- Determining the Right Level of Involvement
- Laying Out Integrated Strategies
- Incorporating Self-Interests
- Taking Action through Effective Meetings
- Building Trust and Fostering Conflict by Aligning Responsibilities
- Sustaining Involvement of Key Stakeholders
- Attracting Greater Support to Succeed
Using the tools and techniques provided in these units will help you create and sustain an effective community partnership— and make a lasting difference in the lives of older adults.
Laying the Groundwork
Building a partnership is complex, requiring everything from buy-in and flexibility to leadership, resources and time. Members must learn to increase participation and forge trust, leading to the formation of a strategic map and the creation of something larger and more collaborative.
Tapping Capabilities
People join a partnership for a variety of reasons, but they all want to have an impact. Partnerships thus experience a degree of jockeying for power or influence. To manage that challenge, groups must tap into the unique capabilities of members and accommodate personal preferences.
Level of Involvement
Partnership members contribute varying levels of time and resources. Those levels fall into four categories: the core initiators, the collaborators, the coordinators and the cooperators. And each is crucial to a group’s success.
Integrated Strategies
For partnerships to evolve effectively, members must be willing to invest in achieving the desired results. And they’ll be more likely to invest their assets * time, energy, knowledge, skills, money and connections * when they think they’ll receive a return on investment.
Incorporating Self-interests
Despite its negative connotation, self-interest is vital to a healthy partnership. Indeed, members always have multiple self-interests, and it’s critical to ensure those personal agendas work for the partnership * not against it.
Action Through Meetings
Members of most groups have an adverse reaction to meetings. But meetings are far from a waste of time, and running them effectively is important for a partnership to succeed.
Building Trust
Building trust and fostering conflict allow a partnership to align performance for maximum impact. Alignment means keeping people involved by letting them get things done. It also means negotiating changes when necessary. All told, performance is diminished greatly when what to be accomplished is clear, but how to do it is not.
Sustaining Involvement
Resources to achieve a partnership’s desired impact abound among stakeholders who may not be directly involved with the effort. These key individuals * including heads of agencies, elected officials, business leaders or media personalities * influence not only one another, but others outside the partnership. And they have the power to help, or hinder, progress.
Attracting Support
Raising awareness of a partnership is crucial to attracting community support to succeed. A cost-effective marketing approach, especially when budgets are tight, is the strategic use of public relations.
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