Making partnership working effective

Robin Douglas 2011

In it together ?

Mistakes we all can make

• All partnerships are the same• Organisations lead partnerships• ‘A partnership is not just for Christmas’• Leaders lead partnerships• We need lots of meetings• We have to plan and do things together• It is important to involve everybody

• ... and it’s just about partnerships, not partnership working

• When organisations are in competition

• Through co-ordinated but independent approaches

• In co-operation or partnership

Not just partnerships - there are three modes of organisational working

Choosing an approach

• You promote competition when?

• Develop co-ordinated approaches when?

• Promote co-operation or partnershp when?

Degrees of partnership

Independence

Mutual support

Preferred provider Joint projects

Shared risk and

development

Integrated teams

Strategic alliance

Integrated systems

Merged organisations

What do we know about partnership working?

• Research and evidence is weak• Working across organisations is crucial to

effective outcomes• Learning is mostly from hindsight• There are some key enabling factors• Leadership is a key• Clear purpose and achievements is another• From your experience of partnerships and

partnership working, what do you know?

Writers about partnerships

• Rosabeth Moss-Kanter – 6 characteristics of success

• Huxham & Brodie - Potential for Partnerships

• Miller – successful community based alliances

• Powell - 7 dimensions of healthy alliances

Key features for closer partnership working

• Recognition of task dependency – ‘we need each other’

• Cultural understanding and acceptance – ‘we understand each other’

• Consensus about ends and means- ‘we agree about what we are trying to achieve’

• Mutual awareness – we are aware of the issues and pressures we each face’

• Experience of collaboration, resource exchange – ‘we have a history of partnership that we can build upon’

• Geographical coherence – ‘we are part of the same Place’

Partnerships - 3 areas for learning from recent Total Place activities

• About leadership

• The processes of partnership working

• People in partnerships

Leadership in partnerships:

• Leaders provide space, encouragement and support - not solutions

• Leaders will be required to change, there is no easy option

• Leaders in partnerships are not necessarily the ‘bosses’• The influence of leadership is crucial, and is complex:

• Positional• Knowledge and understanding• Personal• Networked

Leading with different sources of authority

Positional

Based on Role & OrganisationalPosition

GivenWisdom

Based on the Belief & Trust of Others

EarnedKnowledg

e Based on Personal CapacityExperience & Understanding

Acquired

Process and partnership working:

• Working and thinking together is learning – people don’t start from the same place

• Think and act with systems not organisations• Working and building partnerships is messy and

uncertain• Purpose and outcomes should lead process - not

vice versa• The process needs to be –

• Convergent and divergent• Open and led• Planned and emergent

People in partnerships:• Listen to real people – it’s about their experiences

and voices• It’s about your people and places, not just

organisations• From formal Partnerships to professional

friendships and joined up leadership• The Pilots provided people to help, challenge,

shape and enable the processes locally• It costs in terms of time, energy, commitment and

influence – but for many it is worth it for more real and effective partnerships with improved outcomes and some efficiencies

Who’s outcomes? Understanding Needs: Jonathan Bradshaw

Comparative Needs Normative Needs

Expressed Needs

Felt Needs

Policies and partnership: what are the implications of the following -

• A big society?

• Fair Society, Healthy Lives – Marmot?

• Liberating the NHS?

• The spending review ?

• Personalised services? – for adults and children/families

• Community budgets?

• Healthy Lives, Healthy People?

Leading in partnership requires a…

• Focus on outcomes… there are often different ways of getting there

• Focus on strategic behaviour, not just ‘strategies’

• Recognition that a plan is not a strategy

• Understanding that single or simple solutions rarely work, consider systems and connections

When is it leadership ?

Command Management Leadership

• Focus Tactical Operational Strategic

• Time Short Term Medium Term Long Term

• Problem Critical Experienced New

Sustaining partnerships needs some enabling features:

• Clear leadership and common purpose – a focus on outcomes

• Shared understanding of each others values and

priorities

• Real achievements to celebrate

• Commitment, energy and support from participating organisations/people

• Shared, trusted information and flexible systems

and

• Effective and open communications

• A recognition of the real pressures facing members

• An explicit and accepted position on resources

• Orientation to and space for shared learning

• Positive focus on the history between partners

Mapping your partnership working

TensionsConflicting priorities

Turf warsService focus

Integrated activityFlexible use of staff

Rule breakingTensions in governance

Outcomes focus

Complex accountabilitiesFaçade activities

Large scale meetingsExpressive focus

NetworkingCultural developmentRelationship building

Governance focus

action

planning

agency

collective

orientation

mode

Auditing your partnership activity

• Where is your partnership on the diagram?

• Where do you want it to be?

• What would help make the shift?

• What help might you need to change things?

Reviewing your partnership experiences

• Where has working in partnership benefitted your local people?

• Where are the greatest inefficiencies in your partnership?

• How can you build improvement into your partnership?

• What two things would improve your partnership working?