Climate Crisis: Why We Need to Partner Faster
Over the last 20 years Cross Sector Partnering has grown dramatically across the world. There has been a recognition that the really tough challenges and problems we are facing cannot be solved by individuals working alone. We need individuals and organisations from all sectors working together and bringing the requisite skills, knowledge and resources that are necessary to solve these challenges.
This has been recognised by the United Nations as part of the Sustainable Development Goals where Partnerships, through their Goal 17, is seen as a key enabler for achieving all of the other Goals.
As momentum for partnering has increased so has the urgency to solve some of our really tough challenges such as climate change and environmental sustainability.
Recent temperatures recorded in the world’s oceans are a dramatic increase on predictions, and the series of extreme weather events taking place across Europe and other places around the world clearly show that the climate has changed and we need action now. We are not progressing fast enough to keep the global increase in temperatures to agreed targets.
We are on borrowed time and in unchartered territory for which the consequences are unknown. The United Nations recently reported the earth isn’t warming it is boiling!
And we are but ‘the frogs’ in that boiling water blissfully carrying on our lives as if nothing has changed.
The recent reprieve by UNESCO from categorising the Great Barrier Reef as endangered may well be a short-term option unless significant further investment is directed to advance reef protection from climate change, water quality and fisheries. Increased action will be needed now to ensure that the reef does not suffer further with global sea temperatures rising.
The transition from fossil fuels to renewables while increasing in rate is still far too slow to meet our Paris targets of limiting global warming to 1.5° C. There is still lots of talk and targets being set, but many of those targets are unlikely to be achieved unless more actions are taken and quickly.
With these major challenges before us, partnering presents the best opportunity to galvanise diverse groups of actors from all sectors to work together and create innovative solutions to these tough complex problems.
But partnering isn’t easy. It can be complex and time consuming unless you have some smart ways of navigating the web of relationships between individuals and organisations often with vastly different objectives and ways of working.
Some of the difficulties in achieving effective partnering has been the time taken to find the right partners, build a foundation of trust and ensure the partnering delivers a sustainable impact.
What can we do to speed up partnering?
From our experience over the last 24 years specialising in this partnering space there are some simple steps you can take to speed up your partnering processes and ensure greater impact. Here are 5 steps we recommend to potential partners:
Build Your Networks
Establish more networks prior to any partnering actually taking place. If you know who is out there and what capabilities they have you have greater opportunities to find the right partner for a particular initiative or project. It is far easier to engage with organisations that you know something about and with whom you have some initial connection
Front Load the Relationship Building
Building a strong foundation of trust and understanding with potential partners before discussing substantive issues. An ideal way to do this is through holding a relationship building workshop which is focussed on the partners getting to know each other both as organisations and as people. It is an opportunity to share information about each other and to learn what is important when coming together. The aim should be to form the foundational level of trust required to go to the next stage of creating an actual partnership.
Build Partnering Knowledge
Once there is a foundation of a relationship in place the next step should be to ensure that everyone who will be directly involved has some knowledge of just what it takes to partner. This will equip potential partners with some frameworks and tools to help them navigate through the partnering process and deal with conflicts and tensions when they arise
Follow a Partnering Methodology
Having a clear common process in place that partners can follow speeds up the partnering dramatically. Those involved then know what steps are needed to take and when, together with what questions to ask of each other at critical times in the process.
Engage a Partnership Broker
If you need help to bring partners together, build the capability of the partners and help resolve conflicts and tensions, then engaging a Partnership Broker can pay handsome dividends. Partnership Brokering is a sophisticated skill set and much more than a facilitator. PB’s can operate as independent external brokers or be internal brokers from within the partner organisations. If engaged as an external PB their aim is to build capability and then move away as the partners gain knowledge, skills and importantly confidence in their partnering.
In Summary
With so many tough challenges to be tackled globally, nationally and locally, there is a clear imperative to use partnering as the enabler to bring the right people and organisations together, on the right issue and at the right time.
But that is only the start – the next imperative is to ensure that the partnering is done as simply, quickly and effectively as possible to create the solutions and achieve the necessary impacts.