One of the projects on which I'm working is assisting in starting collaborations. To many people, this sounds very vague, and I don't blame someone for dismissing the term. Many people talk about partnerships and collaborations, but significantly fewer are actually part of partnerships and collaborations that embody the true sense of those words.
To have a partnership or collaboration, all involved parties must see the value. They must be invested. They must share leadership, be held accountable and they must have a stake in decision-making. This means that all parties must come to the table and dialogue about what's needed and what will be meaningful for their organization.
This is quite difficult from both the standpoint of those initiating the partnerships and those being asked to participate. For those trying to establish collaborations, the intent must be clear. Those being asked must be able to see, understand and question the idea of the partnership because without full buy-in by both parties, the collaboration won't be as meaningful for either.
I'm still learning how to do this - and thoughts are welcome on how to empower partners being asked to buy-in. It seems difficult when one party sees "exactly" how this collaboration could work, when the other is somewhat clueless. My current thoughts are that asking the question of "what would you like to get out of this?" could be a good starting point. What are some other ways to get started?
Hopefully I can follow up on this post later, and share a story that discusses best practices from my own experiences, and the experiences of others.
P.S. Blog will be off-line next week. Enjoy your break :)
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