Partnering

KEEPING RECORDS
Keeping good records of meetings and of the partnership’s progress is an art
- it is a bad idea to give the role of record-keeper to the least experienced or
most junior person available. The great challenge is whether to record
everything or simply the bare minimum. Each partnership will have to decide
what it requires but some basic considerations include:
• Deciding in advance who needs what kind of information
and in what form and then adapting the information
appropriately for different purposes
• Reducing notes from meetings to a) decisions b) areas
needing further discussion c) agreed action points
• Keeping a lively record of the partnership’s ‘history’
(including illustrations / photographs) so that newcomers to
the partnership will be able to understand what has been
achieved and how
• Making as many of the written records as openly
available as possible so that the partnership is recognised
as efficient and transparent
CREATING A ‘LEARNING’ CULTURE
Most of those involved in partnerships agree that the partnerships that endure
are ones that are most open to learning from their own and other’s mistakes.
Every partnership can be seen as a form of ‘action learning’ where the partners
are learning by doing. To see all partnership activity as a form of research (in
addition to being a delivery mechanism for achieving a task) is to give partners
the opportunity for deepening and enhancing their knowledge, skills and
professional practice. True collaboration transforms the individuals that engage
in it consciously: partners help each other grow personally and professionally
while accomplishing the objectives of the partnership.
In addition, every partnership will have much to teach others who aspire to
creating collaborative approaches to sustainable development in their own
areas of work. Many partnerships - even those that seem to be well established
- have benefited from being part of a ‘learning network’ where experiences,
good and bad, are shared.
SETTING GROUND RULES
Some simple ‘base-line’ rules agreed between partners can be very helpful when
the partnership is new and different partners feel the need to assert themselves
and their ‘agendas’ at the expense of giving space to others. Some partners,
from the business and public sector especially, may find it strange to set rules
for behaviour whereas their civil society colleagues are likely to think this quite
natural and acceptable (an early encounter with sectoral diversity!).
Ground rules might include:
• Active listening
• Not interrupting
• Speaking briefly and to the point
• Dealing with facts not rumour
• Respecting those not present
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