2+2=5
FROM COLLABORATION TO
PARTNERSHIP
BRANKA PEURAČA
Partnership Practioner & Meliora d.o.o.
RAFAL SERAFIN
Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation & Partnership
Brokers Association
OUR 2 OBJECTIVES:
1. To argue that partnerships and partnering
are a special type of collaboration
2. To provide tips for making partnerships
more effective in delivering results
Branka Peurača
Meliora d.o.o. Croatia
meliora052@gmail.com
BASED ON OUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AS
PARTNERSHIP PRACTIONERS, AS WELL AS THE
WORK & RESOURCES OF:
The Partnering Initiative
www.thepartneringinitiative.org
Partnership Brokers Association
www.partnershipbrokers.org
3 Questions to begin with:
1. Are you participating in a partnership?
2. Is your organization an effective partner?
3. Is your sector an effective partner?
PARTNERING AS COMMUNICATION
RAFAL SERAFIN
BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER - A WARNING!
DO NOT PARTNER, if you can define and
achieve your objective without collaborating
with others
PARTNER when you recognize that:
1. you cannot achieve your goal by working
alone…
2. only by working cooperatively with others
you can achieve greater innovation,
impact, scale, reform and/or sustainability.
DEFINING PARTNERING
An ongoing relationship based on sharing
costs, risks and benefits, which means:
• Co-creating initiatives, projects & programs
• Committing resources
• Mutual accountability
PARTNERING IS MESSY & UNPREDICTABLE
“… when you assemble a number of men to have
the advantage of their joint wisdom, you
inevitably assemble with those men all their
prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion,
their local interests and their selfish views. From
such an assembly can a perfect product be
expected?”
Benjamin Franklin
Constitutional Convention
17 September 1787
Common partnering challenges:
Partnering is above all a
communication challenge. Far
from being incidental or
peripheral, good communication
is actually the heart or, perhaps
more accurately, the heartbeat of
all effective partnering.
BUILDING A COMMON
‘PARTNERING LANGUAGE’
Branka Peurača
Meliora d.o.o. Croatia
meliora052@gmail.com
AREAS OF COMMUNICATION
• Internal to each organization
• Internal to the partnership
• External to the partnership
because it leads to
because it leads to
because it leads to
RESPECT
TRUST
SUSTAINABILITY
Communicating core
partnering principles
The Partnership Cycle
as common language
DIFFICULT TERMS FOR SOME PARTNERSHIP-BUILDING
PEOPLE / SECTORS ALTERNATIVE
Trust Transparency / honesty
Profit Benefit
Common objectives Complementary objectives
Business plan Action plan
Funding Resourcing
Priorities Values
Committee Focus / Working / Task group
Market analysis Scoping exercise
Consultation Participation
Exit strategy Moving on strategy
Terminology as communication
DEALING WITH
CONFLICT
Value
Conflict
Relationship
Conflict
Structural
Conflict
Data
Conflict
Interest
Conflict
PARTNERING AS
COMMUNICATION
Who are
your actual
or potential
partners?
What do
partners
contribute to
partnership
impact?
How do you think
your partners
understand
‘partnering’?
Communication as
partnership brokering
ENVIRONMENTAL PARTNERSHIP
EXAMPLES FROM POLAND
• Mobile Krakow Campaign
• Malopolska Local Food Project
• Zakopane Green Winter Olympics Bid
DELIVERING MORE THROUGH
PARTNERSHIP ACTION
2+2=5
BRANKA PEURAČA
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
PARTNER FROM HELL
Mendacious, lacks
experience and expertise
irresponsible, distrustful,
employs incompetent
family members and
friends which causes
miscommunication with
partners.
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
PARTNER FROM HEAVEN
Experienced, supportive,
truthful about motives,
respectful, flexible, timely
warnings about
limitations.
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
FALSE PARTNERS
Same people, facilities,
experience and outreach
are shared by each of
the partners, only
formally registered as
separate entities.
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
IMPERFECT, YET SUCCESSFUL PARTNERS
Despite different organizational cultures and ways to deal with conflicts,
able to recognize the problem and talk openly about it. Committed to the
proclaimed goals and flexible in pursuing them.
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
Have we clarified to ourselves which partners are
needed and why?
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
BE HONEST – WHAT DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION
NEED FROM THE PARTNERSHIP?
How can we make sure that our current and
potential partners provide what we need?
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
Planning partnership
DOCUMENTS TO DEFINE:
• Intention to work together;
• Intellectual property;
• Partnership agreement;
• Detailed task description
with responsibilities and
deadlines;
• Protocols on
communication,
monitoring, decisionmaking and disagreements.
FRAME FOR DESIGNING
COOPERATION:
• Kick-off meeting;
• Other meetings: regular,
representative, and in-sync
with M&E activities;
• External support: TA, M&E,
facilitator, contracting
authority;
• Lessons learned.
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
In your experience…
…which are the most serious risks
for establishment and maintainence
of partnership?
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
In your opinion, what
makes a partnership successful?
•Skills:
• Processes:
Branka Peurača
meliora052@gmail.com
Let’s reconsider 3 questions posed at the start
in terms of communication:
1. Are you participating in a partnership?
2. Is your organization an effective partner?
3. Is your sector an effective partner?
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
Branka Peurača
Meliora d.o.o. Croatia
meliora052@gmail.com
FOR MORE ON PARTNERING:
The Partnering Initiative
www.thepartneringinitiative.org
Partnership Brokers Association
www.partnershipbrokers.org
Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation
www.fpds.pl
BRANKA PEURAČA
Meliora d.o.o.
meliora052@gmail.com
RAFAL SERAFIN
Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation &
Partnership Brokering Association
rafal.serafin@fpds.pl