23 years in partnering... So what's changed?
This month we celebrate 23 years in business, and I took some time to reflect on what has changed with partnering since we started out and how our business has adapted over this time.
How far has partnering come?
In the late 1990’s greater collaboration between organisations from different sectors was starting to be talked about but very little was taking place. Fast forward to today and we see massive amounts of collaboration and partnering between business, government, community and education across all fields.
But the question I keep asking is how much of this partnering is achieving an impact? And could the partnering be taking place more simply, quickly, and effectively?
Thankfully a lot more partnering initiatives are achieving impacts due to a greater emphasis on skilling individuals involved in partnering and building organisational understanding and capability to partner effectively.
In 1999, there was limited understanding on cross sector partnering, no dedicated training courses on partnering and no professional organisation dedicated to supporting partnership brokering. Collaboration and partnering was taking place in an ad hoc manner and was often resource intensive and costly with limited benefits.
Some developments we have seen since 1999 include:
A greater recognition by organisations and individuals that we need to get better at ‘how to partner
Organisations developing holistic approaches to partnering to ensure consistent approaches when partnering internally and externally across sectors
Both foundational and advanced partnering skills training courses now available in face to face and online versions
Greater research into cross sector partnering and its potential benefits with many case studies now being produced
The establishment of The Partnering Initiative in the UK which has provided significant research and development into the field of cross sector partnering and continues to be a leader in this field today
The creation of the Partnership Brokers Association as a professional organisation for the discipline of partnership brokering
And critically the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals where Goal 17 Partnerships is seen as a key enabler for all the other SDG’s
Overall, we have seen some significant developments in the field of cross sector partnering and we have been privileged to be a part of this movement over the last 20+ years.
We have been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with many organisations and individuals on many exacting and challenging assignments.
So what about the future of partnering?
While many individuals and organisations have contributed to developing cross sector partnering processes and partnership brokering as a professional discipline we still have so much to do.
There is no shortage of tough, challenging complex issues that will only be solved through organisations from different sectors working together differently. We saw through the pandemic the need to work together was crucial and it is no less so when we look at tackling climate change, global disadvantage and resolving conflicts.
For our part we will continue to support clients across all sectors by working ‘in the middle’ as an independent partnership broker, ‘side by side’ in building partnering capability within organisations and ‘one on one’ with our partnership skills training.
Let’s work together to raise the bar with partnering knowledge and skills so that we can solve these tough challenges and leave the world in a better place.
If you would like to learn more about how to partner simply, quickly and effectively then you can sign up for our next Partnering by Design™ – Facilitated Online Course which will start in late October, 2022 – full details are here