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MAKING YOUR PARTNERSHIP WORK Daniel Rickett Winepress Publishing, 2002, 165 pp. |
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Rickett is a professor at Eastern University and senior
advisor of partnership development for Partners International. This follow- up book to Building
Strategic Partnerships is meant particularly for global bi-lateral
partnerships. It is more practical
but would benefit from practical examples to illustrate some of the
processes. Those with some formal
partnership experience will find it most valuable. There is still a need for an introductory manual to help
inexperienced church leaders begin partnering across cultures. “The shift in the center of gravity of Christian expansion
is the defining trend of world evangelization today. Not only is it reshaping the grand,
macro-level aspects of missions but the local aspects as well, including
where, when, how, and with whom Christians carry out the work of the gospel.”
(19) “What Two-Thirds world
Christians ask for is our personal, passionate involvement as co-workers in
the ministry of the gospel,” (not necessarily our technology, our
methodology, or our wealth.) (20) “Partnership is defined as a
relationship between ministries and people who share common aspirations, strive
to achieve them together, and do so in a spirit of cooperation and brotherly
love.” (23) “To have productive partnerships, we must have vision,
relationship, and results.” “By vision I mean a compelling view of the future—a
picture of what the partnership can achieve.” (23) The book is organized around the Imperatives of
Partnership (from a chart on p. 25) VISION – shared
vision, compatibility, ground rules RELATIONSHIP –
alliance champions, intercultural understanding, mutual trust RESULTS –
meaningful results, documentation, learning and change PART I. VISION Ch.
1. A Shared Vision
“Vision is important to any type of ministry, but it is
essential for intercultural partnerships.”
“Shared vision keeps everyone moving in the same direction.” (29) “By vision I mean a picture of the future that is both
compelling and credible.” “A credible
vision articulates a realistic view of the future. People on both sides have to believe that with God’s help they
can actually make the vision a reality.”
(30) “The first element of successful partnership is having a
good reason to partner.” “Good
enough.” (31) “Partnership starts
with a recognized need for collaboration.”
(31) “Goals that make a difference reflect a potential for
impact in the ministry of the gospel that could not be achieved without the
partnership.” (33) “It’s fine to be helpful and to provide assistance, but
that doesn’t make a partnership.
Partnership must be reciprocal.”
(31) “The only way to know whether or not a relationships is
reciprocal is to determine what is in it for each partner.” (34) Ch.
2. Compatibility
“While agreement on fundamental beliefs is the most
obvious aspect of compatibility, it is also the most easily overlooked.” (35) “Partners should not have to make major changes in
operational values and priorities.” “The same goes for ministry
priorities. Priorities should be
compatible at the top.” (36-7) “It is easy to overlook size and capacity in assessing the
compatibility of organizations. …partnerships
can sometimes turn out like elephant-rabbit stew. When we use one elephant and one rabbit, it should not surprise
us that the 50-50 stew tastes more of elephant than of rabbit!” (38-9) “Another challenge of uneven relationships is the capacity
to get things done. Large
organizations may have staff members who work full-time in specialized
areas…. They may underestimate what
it is like in a small organization where each staff member has multiple
jobs.” (39) Ch.
3. Ground Rules
“One key to success is ground rules…explicit guidelines
that govern behavior.” “They fix the
limits of what you should and should not do.” (41) Five areas for ground rules: roles and responsibilities, communication, financial matters,
conflict resolution, and disengagement.
“The first step is to think through all the different roles that need
to be performed.” (42) Checklist for Vision – p. 51 PART II.
RELATIONSHIP Ch.
4. Alliance Champions
“Partnership is nothing if it is not personal. It’s all about relating.” “Partnering organizations have to connect
at the personal level, and this is best achieved through alliance
champions. Alliance champions are the
people most responsible for making the partnership work. This means that each organization must
have at least one person dedicated to managing the relationship.” (55) The champion serves in both coordination and advocacy
roles. (57) Tasks of the
champion: build rapport, provide
leadership, clarify expectations, keep things simple and flexible, keep
communications flowing, go the distance, keep God at the center. “Overly specific objectives trap partners on a one way
street in a world that demands flexibility and quick response. Champions don’t use goals to force things
to happen. They use them as points of
reference to manage change.” (59) Setting goals and measuring results is less about using
good management practices than about understanding what God is inviting you
to do, then looking to see if it’s happening and what you can learn from
it.” (61) Ch.
5. Intercultural Understanding
“Every one of the nine imperatives of partnership
represents Anglo-American cultural patterns.” (66) “Anyone who wants
to have a global partnership but who has never lived outside his or her
culture is at a distinct disadvantage.”
(67) “Non-Western ministries almost routinely accommodate to
Western partners.” (67) “Culture is the shared ways in which groups of people
understand and interpret the world.”
(68) The onion model of culture is attributed to Donald Smith, Creating
Understanding, (Zondervan, 1992), pp. 251-266) (69) Ch.
6. Mutual Trust
“Partnerships are built on trust. Without it, they simply don’t work.” “Trust is what allows us to accept at face
value what others say. We don’t have
to worry about hidden agendas or distortion.
We can act on the information without fear that we might later regret
it.” “Trust allows us to share
information with each other freely and openly, even negative
information.” (75) “While it is the most powerful component of a partnership,
it is also the most fragile.” (75) “Simply stated, we trust those who meet our
expectations. In contrast, distrust
arises when those on whom we depend appear unwilling or unable to meet our
expectations.” (76) “Bergquist found three kinds of trust in a partnership:
trust in intentions, trust in competency, and trust in perspectives. All three are needed. (77) “We create trust not so much by trusting others as by
giving others reasons to trust us.” “The more we trust, the more vulnerable we become. An organization that cannot live with
vulnerability should not expect to succeed at partnering.” (78) “Without trust, partners become unwilling or unable to be
completely open with each other; especially about problems.” (79) “Integrity, and the trust that derives from it, boil down
to consistency in four basic areas: ·
Is what you know what you make known? - Are you forthcoming with important
information and honest about your feelings and views? ·
Is there alignment between your words and actions?
– keeping your promises ·
Is your behavior consistent across situations? –
everyone gets the same story. You
don’t change your position based on whom you are talking to. ·
Is your behavior consistent over time? - It takes a long time to demonstrate
integrity. “Many ministry partnerships…fail because of unrealistic
expectations, self-serving agendas, excessive demands for accountability, or
chronic inconsistencies between word and actions.” (84) PART III. RESULTS Ch.
7. Meaningful Results
“By results I mean the effects or outcomes produced by the
joint effort of ministry partners.”
(89) “They tell us if we are
moving in the right direction and they let us know when we have
arrived.” (90) Meaningful results are measured, strategic, balanced,
synergistic, and co-created. (90) “In the absence of clear measurements, just about anything
can pass for success or failure.”
(90) “Measurements come in two basic kinds: quantitative and
qualitative. Quantity is the amount
of something; quality has to do with its essential nature.” Both are useful and necessary. (91)
If you can’t count, compare qualities. Compare the present to the ideal or compare the present with
the past for a single attribute. (92) “Balance has to do with getting results that correspond to
the level of contribution.” “The
issue is…the perceived degree to which the results correspond to the level of
contribution.” (94) “Synergy comes only from the strategic alignment of skills
and resources to accomplish a specific objective.” (95) “Results in partnership are most meaningful when they are
co-created, the product of joint learning and mutual change.” (96) Unexamined results leave you adrift in ambiguity, never
certain of what your activities really mean.
They can convince you that the activity aligns with espoused
values. “Examining results is the
feedback loop that enables learning and signals a need for change.” (96) Ch.
8. Documentation
“Partnership is all about managing expectations. The big challenge is the speed with which
expectations change.” “Documentation
provides an audit trail…” (99) “Some common types of documentation include project
proposals, working agreements, financial reports, and project updates.” (100) A chart on pp. 101-02 provides a
list of what should be included in a project proposal. Ch.
9. Learning and Change
“Successful partnerships don’t hold together because they
cling to their original plans; they succeed because they learn and adjust to
each other and to changing circumstances.”
“Partners not only have to learn about one another, they have
to learn how to collaborate with one another.” (113) “Plans are good but things do change. Strategies don’t always work. “The power of planning is in the process,
the discipline of collectively setting the focus, analyzing the forces that
drive the ministry, and establishing milestones.” (115) “Feedback about the processes and outcomes of ministry is
the most important kind of information.”
This “usually amounts to quarterly activity reports that include
financial statements, reports on significant achievements, problems to be
overcome, and action plans.” (116) “It is not enough to collect information; we must absorb
it, internalize it, and … make it our own.
It is when we have time to think about what we see and hear, to make
patterns out of information, and to test ideas that we truly learn.” (117)
Some things ministry leaders can do to enhance learning
from experience: (119 ff.) ·
Establish an environment conducive to learning –
encourage experimentation and adapting to new situations. ·
Tell people what they need to do to succeed in
their jobs. ·
Help people set achievable goals. ·
Provide feedback on work performance and ministry
outcomes. ·
Include people as active participants in decision-making. ·
Match individual talents to job requirements. ·
Make sure people have the information they need. ·
Avoid stepping in and solving problems people
should solve themselves. ·
Celebrate success. Resource One: Partner Assessment and Selection (125
ff.) A
checklist for selecting a partner. 41
questions. Resource Two: Our Pledge to You (131
ff.) The
pledge Partners International commits to its partners. Resource Three: Partnership Self-Assessment (139
ff.) A
questionnaire for all team members of both partners to evaluate themselves. ISBN
1-57921-419-3 www.winepresspub.com www.partnersintl.org To purchase copies, call Partners International
877-421-7323 |
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