Collaborating with other organisations can be a great way to get more done. I went to the AGM of the local business community partnership organisation, Connect Reading, this morning and it was interesting to hear about some exciting plans to bring together charity, public and private sector organisations for projects that will make a significant positive difference to the lives of local people.
With less funding to go round, an increasing drive towards efficiency and more complex social problems that require more than one agency’s input, organisations are starting to recognise options beyond regarding others simply as competitors.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines collaboration as a noun for ‘working jointly with’ and Chambers describes it as ‘working in association with’. If you work with another organisation, then you can learn from each other, pool your ideas and resources and become greater than the sum of your parts. The benefits of strength through working together are being recognised more and more, but how to make it happen?
(The word also has more negative connotations, of course, based on helping out your enemies, but that’s not the meaning we’re interested in here.)
Collaboration between two or more organisations requires many things, such as appropriate processes and a desire to make it work. What it also requires is strong, effective communication between the organisations that are coming together. For those that are considering taking this route of working with others for the greater good, there are a number of communication points to consider:
1. From the start, you need to be clear about what you are hoping to get from working together and articulate that clearly. It might be that compromise is required for all parties to achieve their aims, but you need to have that discussion at the start, not when you are already embroiled in a grant application process or delivering a shared service.
2. You need to have clear messages for both your internal staff and volunteer body and your external audiences, such as supporters and service-users, so that they understand what you are trying to achieve and how it will affect them.
3. Regular contact between the appropriate stakeholder groups is key to ensuring that once you have started from the same page, you remain on the same one over time. Management and leadership meetings are important, as are regular updates between groups who are delivering a shared service or gathering shared feedback.
4. Listen. To each other, to your service-users, to your supporters, to other relevant bodies and agencies. Anyone who is in any way impacted by you working together will have an opinion and it is crucial to listen to what is being said, to ensure you remain on track with your original aims and make the difference you were hoping for.
Collaborating with others isn’t for everyone, but it can make a huge difference in situations where you are getting nowhere alone. If you would like me to help you with communicating effectively with partners, please get in touch.
Until next time
Sarah