This has been my favourite tweet of the last 24 hours!<\/p>\n
It caused me to pause and reflect.\u00a0 It made think about how poorly it is defined and what a mess most partnerships are.\u00a0 Many people find it a Herculean proposition to drive change in a single organisation.\u00a0 What hope for progress in a partnership?<\/p>\n
Yet few organisations or individuals can achieve what matters without involving others in some way.\u00a0 If you need the support, permission, co-operation or resources of others to achieve what matters to you then you will have to work in partnership.<\/p>\n
In my experience the best partnerships are formed when each partner:<\/p>\n
is very clear and open about their self interest<\/p>\n
has enough power to make things happen and is adept at using power to manage win\/win negotiations with other partners.<\/p>\n
In the worst partnerships, partners:<\/p>\n
My best guess is that if you work in a partnership and progress is slow, you are suffering from one or more of these symptoms.<\/p>\n
The solutions:<\/p>\n
Good leadership and great development<\/a> for partners can help partnerships to become significantly more effective.<\/p>\n Some people get very uncomfortable with\u00a0 the idea of negotiating their own self interest rather than ‘co-operating’ and ‘serving’.\u00a0 There are a lot of reasons behind this.\u00a0 This article <\/a>sheds light on some of them.<\/p>\n