As the demands for collaboration grow and more organizations answer the call, many are discovering that they are not set up to partner effectively. Countless organizations are involved in a range of relationships with others that they call ‘partnership’. Some of them are delivering strategic value. Others are languishing or completely forgotten from when they were launched, often with much fanfare and promise! As organizations seek to partner, many are starting to understand that the organization and the staff need to be ready to partner effectively.
Why Ethical Partnership Brokers Matter
Partnerships are a vital element in today's complex world, where solving problems and creating meaningful change requires cooperation and collaboration across different sectors and stakeholders. However, partnerships are not easy to create, maintain, and scale up, as they involve diverse perspectives, interests, and power dynamics. That's where a Partnership Broker comes in, as a skilled and ethical guide, facilitator, navigator, coach, and challenger.
Partnership Being: Habits of Highly Effective Partners
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore, is not an act but a HABIT.” -Aristotle
Don’t show up occasionally as your best partnership self - commit to it day in and day out through everything you do. Improvement will add up over time. They will turn from actions into superpower habits! Here are four partnership habits that will change the impact and effectiveness of your collaborations – forever!
Partnership Starts With YOU!
Gandhi’s expressed a similar observation, in 1913 with his iconic aphorism, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Change starts from within. Nowhere is this truer than in partnerships. Partnerships are a group activity, but success is only achieved through individual efforts and skill.
This requires us to ask ourselves: Who am I going to be when I show up as my best partnership self? What is the best version of your partnership you - your partnership Identity?
Five Partnership Challenges - ONE Solution!
Rethinking Virtual Partnerships
Working in collaboration can be difficult, even when you're all in the same room, but how do you work with partners across multiple venues, technology barriers and even time zones?
Replay the webinar with Partnership Brokers Association Catherine Russ. In it she shares her belief that it is entirely possible for virtual partnering to be an opportunity rather than a problem – if we can use the challenges as drivers for breakthrough thinking and innovative practice.
Shift from Partnership Drama to Partnership Empowerment!
Recently I was speaking with a colleague who was experiencing a common partnership challenge - I call it the “Partnership Drama Triangle.” This is a state I have adapted from David Emerald’s excellent book, The Power of TED (The Empowerment Dynamic). In the book he describes this drama phenomenon as the toxic three-way state, we can find ourselves in if we don’t pay attention to what’s actually happening. As with any triangle, it has three points – victim, persecutor and rescuer.
One Small Habit Change = Big Partnership Difference!
So often in partnerships we think that our success will be depend on one defining moment – a big win that changes everything. We often convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. Then we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about. In so doing, we underestimate the value of making small habit improvements and bringing them to life daily.