The partnership lifecycle
The Partnership Life Cycle
FLYING
FORMING
FUNCTIONING
FALLING
FRUSTRATION
FAIL
Adapted from "Five Vital Lessons: Successful Partnership with
Business" (authors: Educe Ltd and GFA Consulting).
The Partnership Life Cycle
If your
partnership
is…..
Forming
Frustration
Functioning
Flying
Failing
Characteristics include…
Possible actions
 Exploring what's needed and what's possible
 Sharing common cause, arising from shared interests, opportunities or threats
 Early enthusiasm
 Nature of commitments hazy
 Create opportunities for people to get to know each other
 Meet on neutral ground
 Encourage focus on common vision
 Appeal to "mutual enlightenment self-interest"
 Focus on benefits to individuals and address costs and potential risks
 Start exploring parameters of possible partnership agreement
 Hidden agendas
 Individuals questioning the purpose of the partnership and reasons for being there
 Doubting each other
 Competing for credit and control
 Bit of "a fog"
 Revisit common ground & allow time to redefine issues, purposes etc.
 Plan a few quick wins
 Create the climate for open expression and constructive disagreement
 Clarify and re-emphasise benefits to individual partners
 Promote mutual appreciation of what each other can contribute
 Don't get caught up in blaming any particular party - fix the problem
not the blame
 Feeling renewed vision & focus
 Established clear roles and responsibilities
 Progress through joint project teams
 Feeling accountability to each other for actions
 Partners talking in terms of "we" not "you"
 Start implementing partnership agreement
 Agree clear objectives, milestones, responsibilities, success measures
 Establish ground rules & principles for collaboration
 Develop common methods & quality standards
 Encourage joint learning through training & review activities
 Achievement of partnership goals
 Partners altering what they do & how they do it to achieve partnership objectives
 Partnership priorities central to partners' activities
 Shared leadership
 Trust and mutual respect
 Keep working at communications
 Anticipate future challenges & build capacity to respond
 Ensure all the partners are getting the benefits they expect
 Celebrate success
 Reflect on whether the partnership still serves its purpose
 Recurrent tensions
 Disengagement
 Lack of commitment
 Breakdown or frittering away of relationships
Revisit stage 1
Adapted from "Five Vital Lessons: Successful Partnership with Business" (authors: Educe Ltd
and GFA Consulting).
Thank you