Overwhelming. Stressful. Uncertain. Passion. Hope. Change. These were the words used to describe 2020 that reflect both the profound challenge of the year, and the powerful hope that positive transformations will come out of it.

Although the path forward into 2021 may feel uncertain, one thing has never been clearer: to change the trajectory for the better, we must come together, collaborate, and form genuine partnerships. These efforts will support each other and leverage our joint strengths to co-create a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future that we all can share.

I am always looking for ways to strengthen partnerships and I found a great one in Nassim Taleb’s 2012 book, Antifragile. In it, ,Taleb shares the fact that there’s a big difference between being fragile, resilient, and antifragile. His idea is highly relevant for partnerships and offers an opportunity to learn how to see challenges as growth opportunities. What does this look like in the real world?

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson’s statement applies to partnerships, too – what a partnership decides to be is what it becomes! This simple but hard truth can be applied to many aspects of a partnership, but today I will apply it to power dynamics.

There is no roadmap to creating effective partnerships. No checklist, no simple, ten-step process. The good news is that building effective partnerships is not some mysterious secret that depends on hard-to-find geniuses. But a good compass is vital to help you and your partners on your quest. It can help get you started and support you during those inevitable times of disorientation, or even losing your way. A good compass can help you understand what direction you need to move towards.

Download Partnership Compass

Anytime we undertake a partnership journey we need to remember that there’s always going to be challenges – some will be small annoyances and others just big messes. Little challenges, big challenges, they are inevitable – always!

In our last partnership blog, we explored the three critical elements necessary to design and manage an effective partnership: Mindset, skillset and toolset. I want to add a fourth – COURAGE. Courage is an essential partnership element, and it is not about the absence of fear, it is about taking the action you need to take, even though you may be afraid and feel uncertain.

Effective partnerships have the potential to create new and ground-breaking solutions to existing problems and add value to the beneficiaries, partners and community. So, what does it take to build effective and meaningful partnerships that drive positive change?

Things are inside-up and upside down right now that’s for sure! You may be reading this right now from the makeshift office you’ve set up in your living room. Or locked in your bedroom while your kids, or roommates, have taken over the kitchen table with their projects. We’re heard about people having Zoom meeting with someone working from inside a teepee, from pool side and even in the bathtub – video off (we hope)!