Building Networks: The Role of Collaboration, and Partnerships

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Building NetworksThe Role of Collaboration,
and Partnerships

• Lori Garkovich
• University of Kentucky

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The challenges of collaboration

• Everyone talks about collaboration,
  coalition-building and partnerships as if they
  are easy to create and sustain
• Yet everyone also knows that these activities
  require enormous amounts of effort to create and
  sustain, sometimes to no avail
• What is likely to happen when we put together
  these kinds of efforts? What needs to happen?
  And, what roles and skills are essential for
  success?

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The Process
Emergence
Activation
Stabilization
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Phase 1 - Emergence

• The issues domain or, the context in which the
  issue lives
• Emergence of issues and stakeholders who have an
  interest in the issue
• Readiness to work together
• Emergence of conveners who initiate the first
  meeting of stakeholders

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Phase 2 - Stabilization

• Participants understand each others values,
  interests, goals and preferences
• Those working together establish super-ordinate
  goals that help focus their efforts
• Norms, procedures and rules for operating are
  established and formed
• Agreement reached on level of working together
  members willing to commit to

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Phase 3 - Activation

• Information and date on issues gathered to inform
  learning about the issue and problem-solving
• Common ground for solutions and actions agreed on
• Plan for implementation of response to issue
  developed
• Solutions and plans activated and evaluated

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Levels of Working Together
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Levels of Working Together

• Ways of working together vary by levels of
  interdependence as well as levels of risk in the
  relationship
• The goal is not to reach the maximum level of
  interdependence or complexity in the
  relationship,
• But to find the level of working together that
  best fits the situation and the capacity of the
  participating groups

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Levels of Working Together

• Networking - sharing information
• Cooperating - sharing activities
• Partnership - sharing resources
• Coalition - sharing systems of support
• Collaboration - creating new systems

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Levels of Working Together

• Can we think about situations that would be
  appropriate for each type?
• Can we think of situations where a type of
  working together would not be appropriate at all?

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The Challenges ofWorking Together

• Based on your own experience what makes it
  difficult to work together?

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Challenges of Working Together

• Occur when organizations with seemingly common
  goals or interests fail to cooperate or come into
  conflict
• Organizations have domains of interest and
  action.
• When these overlap they may be reluctant to work
  together because to do so requires some exchange
  of organizational resources

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Challenges of Working Together

• Institutional and structural barriers
• Perceived inequalities in power or
  decision-making influence
• Overlapping organizational goals
• Fear of diversion of resources
• Changing political landscape

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Challenges of Working Together

• Attitude and perception barriers
• Lack of knowledge of other participants
• Lack of trust in other participants
• Personal conflicts

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Challenges of Working Together

• Process barriers
• Incompatible action strategies or strategies that
  mitigate organizational effectiveness
• Blurring of organizational identity
• Loss of individual organizational
  respect/recognition
• Failure to establish agreements about how you
  will work together

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Challenges of Working Together Overlapping
domains of action

• GOALS
• Common goals collide with other priorities
• RESOURCES
• Loss of resources for general support
• Unequal sharing of resources/recognition
• GEOGRAPHY
• Infringing on service territories

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Challenges of Working Together Overlapping
domains of action

• METHODS
• Incompatible action strategies
• Questions about who owns action strategies
• IDENTITY
• Possible change in organizational identity
• Possible change in public perceptions of the
  organization
• PERSONALITIES
• Personal conflicts, personal concerns

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Challenges of Working TogetherTurf Problems

• Turf problems arise if organizations perceive
• Others as direct and regular competitors for
  scarce resources
• A marginal cost in money, time, or energy that
  is greater than the perceived benefits
• Little flexibility in changing their current
  goals, tasks or action mandates to accommodate
  working together

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Challenges of Working TogetherTurf Problems

• Turf problems may also emerge due to
• A lack of knowledge or mistrust of other
  organizations
• Organizations feel they have no voice in deciding
  what will happen or how
• Organizations estimate that others will gain more
  than they do, or it will cost them more than
  others

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The Challenges of Working Together

• When we catalogue all the potential barriers to
  working together the question is not why dont we
  work together more, but why do we work together
  at all!

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Overcoming the Challenges of Working Together

• Overcoming these barriers requires that we begin
  at the beginning. At the beginning, we need to
  clarify the appropriate level of working together
  by these particular groups on this particular
  problem at this point in time.

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Deliberating on Working Together

• What do we each see as the issue(s) that bring us
  together?
• How urgent is the situation from every ones
  perspective?
• Do we represent the diversity of those with an
  interest in this issue?

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Deliberating on Working Together

• How would we rate the efficiency and
  effectiveness of our organizations?
• What particular strengths do we bring to
  addressing this issue?
• What skills, knowledge, experiences,
  understandings, or resources do we each have to
  contribute to working together?

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Deliberating on Working Together

• Has any of us had prior experiences working
  with other groups? If so, what have we learned
  from those experiences that will help us here?
• What forces might work against a successful
  effort at working together?
• How do we think the rest of the community will
  view this effort at working together?

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Deliberating on Working Together

• What are our expectations for a process and
  structure of working together?
• What are our expectations for our respective
  roles and functions in this effort?
• What will be our measures of progress or our
  effectiveness at
• Addressing the issue?
• Establishing a working relationship?

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Deliberating on Working Together

• What will we gain? Individually? Together?
• What will working together enable us to do
  differently? Will this be better?
• What might be the costs of working together for
  each group?
• What costs are we willing to bear before we feel
  we can no longer participate?
• Will this effort jeopardize any existing
  organizational commitments?

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Deliberating on Working Together

• Do we see any possible costs to the community
  from our working together?
• Will our working together offer or provide to the
  community opportunities that do not now exist?

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Deliberating on Working Together

• How can we clarify the specific contributions
  that we might bring to working together?
• Three key questions to answer are
• What is our common ground with other members of
  the working group?
• What are we willing to share in support of this
  effort?
• What do we bring to this effort that is unique
  from everyone else?

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Deliberating on Working Together

• This deliberation will require a commitment of
  time and openness before you even begin to
  address the issue that brought you together.
• But the effort is worth it!
• Establish common ground
• Clarify expectations
• Create a process of deliberation that will
  sustain working together