Remembering people make partnerships

Yesterday I ran a workshop with London University staff developing their extraordinarily wide-ranging external programme - 30,000 students in 190 countries following 90 degree and diploma courses. We were talking about partnerships, because they have to deal with an enormous range of different interests within the university and its colleges, and their many collaborators. We explored what works, what doesn't, what are the do's and don'ts of partnership building processes. I was pleased to find yet again that the lessons and reality checks I had developed for other audiences played well in this context too. Here's one diagram I used that seems to work in most circumstances. You can look at partnerships through the business that they are doing, the structure that they have, or the people involved. Of course, you need all three - but it is easy to become obsessed with the organisational arrangements, and lose touch with delivering effectively to customers or local communities. Even worse, forget that partnerships are fundamentally about building trust and good relationships.... and these are made by people not procedures.
We agreed on the benefits of partnerships including additional skills, mutual support, wider reach.... and barriers like fear of loss of control and identity, uncertain leadership, lack of time. With refreshing honesty, there was a general admission that while the university's many management courses offer far more expertise than I can muster on these and similar matters, it is always difficult to practice what you teach.
I offered as a handout A short guide to partnerships, expanding on these points, which you can download here. Just to underline the universal nature of partnership process and practice, I explained this had first been drafted to help refugee groups deal with the complexities of local government and public agency partnerships in London neighbourhoods.
Full guides to partnership and participation at Partnerships Online.