The Partnership Brokers Association

We are in the process of moving the PBA Alumni Network to a new interactive site – in the meantime contact info@partnershipbrokers.org if you want to connect

Ros Tennyson, Director of Strategy for the Partnership Brokers Association has written a guest blog for Keystone. See why Ros thinks that in partnerships, Rules Don’t Work.

We’ve added new Partnership Brokers Training sessions in early 2017.  Visit our Training Programme page for the full list. Register your interest so you’ll be the first to know when applications are open.

On 29th June 2016, in London, 30+ alumni met to share their experiences of partnership brokering in a wide range of contexts and to explore and help to build PBA’s movement-building agenda.  Outputs from this exciting gathering will be posted shortly. Plans are under discussion for further Global Dialogues in other parts of the world where there are significant numbers of PBA alumni.

At Emerging World. All information can be accessed here: http://www.emergingworld.com/join-us

Deadline is 15 July 2016

PBA has been working with the Start Network for a number of years, and was delighted to join their annual conference this week. Ros joined the panel “How can governments work with civil society to overcome challenges” alongside Rt. Hon. Joe Clark: Former Prime Minister of Canada, Benjamin Laniado: President CADENA A.C., and Naseer Memon: CEO, Strengthening Participatory Organization.

Ros spoke about the importance of investing in partnerships, and how time poverty is a poor excuse to not take action in partnerships. She also shared her top tips to make the move towards transformation:

For more information on Start Networks annual conference, here is their blog: http://www.startnetwork.org/news-and-blogs/annual-conference-2016-live-blog

For more information on Start Networks partnership brokering experience, and case studies on the organisation: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/case-studies/

Published as part of the Promoting Effective Partnering (PEP) project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, the report draws on the experiences of partnership brokers worldwide.  It explores the emerging lessons about partnering in diverse contexts – exploring the factors at national and local levels that impact what partnering is possible.

PBA is one of 5 partners in the project. The other 4 are: The Collective Leadership Institute, Partnerships Resource Centre, Partnerships in Practice & The Partnering Initiative.

To read the report: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/recent-current-research/

For more information on the project, visit the PRC website: http://www.rsm.nl/prc/our-research/projects/promoting-effective-partnering-pep/

We often hear partnership brokers asking for more case studies – more stories about what works and what doesn’t, how other partnerships work in different contexts, what’s new, and what needs to be next on the horizon. So here is your chance to contribute to the growing bank of resources for practitioners: a piece in the next issue of the only online journal dedicated to partnership brokering: Betwixt & Between.

https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/contribute-to-the-journal/

Abstracts are due on 31 March 2016, final piece is due 30 April. Why not give it a go? Never written for a journal before? our Editor, Surinder Hundal, will work with you through the process to get your piece ready for publishing.

Questions? just email us: info@partnershipbrokers.org

This is the third case study in the series of the Start Network journey – the focus this time is on the staff team and the advisors, looking at the processes of a multi-stakeholder membership model.

“We are the privileged that see everything the Start Network is doing. As alchemists, we are searching for that perfect chemical formula, but as magicians, we know intuition might just go farther, faster. So we constantly connect-the-dots between individuals, organisations, evidence, information, people. We don’t have to prove we are getting somewhere, because the evidence speaks for itself, and allows us to take the Start Network to the next level.” Matthew Kletzing, Manager: Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) team

“The case study series is important for a three reasons. First, it is as close as we have to a historical record. Second, it enables us to share our emerging experience with others who wish to learn. Third, it unveils what is ordinarily hidden behind organisational boundaries. This series contributes significantly to our legitimacy as a humanitarian system change catalyst.” Sean Lowrie, Start Network Director

Read the report here: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/case-studies/

Visit the Start Network website: http://www.startnetwork.org/

Over the years at the Partnership Brokers Association – working as we have in many different contexts and types of collaboration – we have come to believe that there are a number of partnership ‘truisms’ that may, in fact, not be true.

Myth #1 – “Collaboration is simple – it just takes common sense and good project management”

Collaboration is always complicated and often complex and failure rates of partnerships have been high over the past 20 years because too many key players have not understood this. In reality, partnering requires a high level of professional skill and a focus on process management.

Myth #2 – “Partnerships are the best way to address most problems in the humanitarian sector”

Many issues may be dealt with more efficiently and directly in a transactional model. It is an error to assume that partnering is the best mechanism for every intervention – it should be reserved for the truly intractable problems for which diversity of view and a wide range of interventions are essential.

Myth #3 – “Successful projects are the most important outcome of a partnership”

Project outcomes are, of course, important, but even more valuable outcomes may go way beyond projects – mind-set, policy, behavioural and / or system change may be far more important in the longer term.

Myth #4 – “For partnerships to work, all partners must have common objectives”

Partnerships must operate under a shared, overarching mission but beneath that, each partner is likely to have their own set of specific objectives. The best partnerships welcome this diversity and work hard to incorporate different approaches since this is most likely to lead to innovation and unexpected solutions.

 Myth #5 – “Agreement and consensus are essential for good partnering”

The aim is ‘win-win’ scenarios – this is most likely to be achieved if partners are ambitious for the partnership and work to arrive at alignment with a level of give and take rather than struggling for 100% agreement that inevitably leads to unsatisfactory compromise or collusion.

Myth #6 – “All partnerships need is a good leader”

The risks of a sole leader include on the one hand, over-dependence and on the other, power imbalance. Partnerships are a real opportunity to address questions of power and inequity.  Partnerships that work well are those that offer opportunities for new forms of shared / distributed leadership

Myth # 7 – “Partnerships are nothing new – they’re as old the hills”

It is probably the case that human beings have survived because they have found ways of collaborating and developing a healthy interdependence. However, given the huge challenges we currently face, the time is right to approach the collaborative imperative with a new focus and intentionality. There is an urgent need for those involved in partnerships to equip themselves for the 21st century with appropriate adaptive knowledge and skills coupled with the new modes of networking, societal innovation and communicating.

Catherine Russ is speaking at AidEX 2015

@CathRuss

Published by: Kings College London

The result of a cultural enquiry between the BBC & Kings College – exploring the role partnership plays in enabling publicly funded cultural institutions to enhance the quality and diversity of their work across the UK.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/culturalenquiries/partnership/index.aspx

“Partnership brokering is a role that needs professionalising. The skill set for the cultural sector should be more clearly identified and nurtured within organisations or as an external network of experienced practitioners.”

Ros Tennyson, PBA’s Development Director for Strategy & Services was on the Advisory Panel and attended the launch this week.

“True partnership is radical, possibly revolutionary, difficult and testing as it should be. The rewards of transformation, of innovation, can be real and significant. But they must be hard fought and will be hard earned.” Sir John Tusa

We are running a Level 1 training in Wellington in October – all details here: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/training/level-1/

We are working with Thought Partners and Inspiring Communities. The training is 20 -23 October 2015.

Action Against Hunger are recruiting for 5 Regional Learning Advisors: http://www.acfin-hr.net/jobs/positions.php?hq=18&id=1258&lang=EN

Deadline for applications is May 10 2015.

Issue 4 of Betwixt & Between – the journal of partnership brokering – is out now. It is a special issue focusing on the humanitarian sector, and has articles covering the following:

• Hard-earned lessons for putting the partnership principles into practice
• The servant leadership approach and humanitarian collaboration
• Passing on the mantle of humanitarian collaboration across generations
• Develloping a soft humanitarian field – improving doing and being through creative partnership brokering
• Supporting civilian protection as humanitarian action – a brokering experience from the DRC
• Value for money in partnerships – a challenge to partnership brokers

Read the full articles here

To contribute to the journal click here. The next issue is an open issue.

A new blog by Catherine Russ on the Humanitarian Practice Network talks through the barriers to effective partnerships and their management, and what a new approach may look like. The skilling-up of partnership brokers could assist the evolution in building partnerships that are fit for purpose in complex environments. This requires a new way of looking at funding and supporting partnerships.

“What is needed is an approach that fosters and embeds a partnering mindset and creates conditions of trust, creativity and innovation – all increasingly essential conditions for finding integrated solutions to complex problems and building legitimacy and buy-in from all partners for sustained systemic change.”

Read the blog here