Partnering invariably cuts through established, more traditional ways of working. It requires people from different entities, sectors and communities to cross their organisational boundaries and engage differently.
This process can be difficult. PBA identified the 5 most common challenges and developed a principled approach to turn challenge into value-add of the partnering approach.
Building on the 5 PBA partnering principles of Relishing Diversity, Building Equity, Promoting Openness, Ensuring Mutual Benefit and Courage To Be Different, Australia-based partnership broker SOPHIE CLAYTON tells us her story of how she approached the integration of these principles into the start-up phase of a two-year, multi-stakeholder collaboration.
She details her thinking on how a partnership broker can facilitate processes that support partners in setting principles that are real for themselves and their context. What does each principle mean in practice? In her work, Sophie builds on this question by proposing supporting behaviours and matching statements of intent.
“The partnering principles form the basis of practice for all partnership brokers. They are high level and open to interpretation – to be used as guides and inspiration. However, there is scope to add to the principles by associating them with pro-partnering behaviours. For each principle, this paper proposes behaviours and statements of intent, adding substance and specificity to help add meaning to the principles so that partners know what to do to reflect the principles in their actions. Also, a sixth principle – accountability – is proposed, to address unreliability concerns and build credibility among partners. “
Download Sophie Clayton’s paper here and tune into this short video to hear from Sophie about her PBA Accreditation journey.