High-Performance Partnerships - National Academy of Public ...

RESULTS
chapter four
The Strategies
1. Agree on definitions of success at the outset.
Defining success is the first step in getting
started. This step may sound simple, but partnerships
often fail to complete it in their rush
to begin. Partners, funders, and stakeholders
must share in identifying the partnership’s
desired outcomes and performance measures.
The greater the specificity and precision, the
greater the likelihood that the partnership will
achieve meaningful results and minimize internal
conflict. The partnership may employ different
strategies for achieving its goal, but the
goal should be constant and the methods for
evaluating success stable.
2. Consider the mission, and then define the
results that achieve it.
Linking outcomes to the partnership’s purpose
is critical. A clear mission should be the starting
point for defining and measuring performance
goals. If the goal is to reduce violent
crime in a community, defining success based
on the murder rate is too limited. The partnership
should change its mission to reduce
the number of murders in the community, or
broaden its performance measure to include all
violent crimes.
3. Identify a “family” of performance measures.
Partnerships, especially young ones, should
focus on a limited number of important outcomes.
The “critical few” concept recognizes
that a single collaboration—even a high-performance
one—cannot be all things to all
stakeholders. The partnership must balance its
focus with the need to measure success from
various perspectives: short-term vs. long-term,
qualitative vs. quantitative, and perception vs.
reality. Funders may desire one set of outcomes,
the community a different set, and
individual partners still another. It is very
challenging to select a family of measurable
outcomes that satisfies everybody but does not
spread the partnership’s attention and
resources too thin.
Outcome targets should balance stretch goals
measuring truly extraordinary performance
with realistic goals enabling the partnership to
celebrate incremental successes. A goal that is
too easy to achieve may render collaboration
irrelevant to addressing the core issues facing a
community. Conversely, a goal that is too
aggressive may cause the partnership to fall
short and appear ineffective.
Baseline data must be captured to evaluate the
partnership’s success in achieving results. Over
time, performance should be measured against
baseline conditions, the partnership’s mission
and goals, and similar community or peer
group activities.
The mission of Milwaukee’s
Lapham Park Venture is to
create a “supportive continuing
care community where
low-income older adults can
comfortably age in place.”
The Venture’s measure of
success is that 96 percent of
its residents do just that.
68 Powering the Future: High-Performance Partnerships