1. CAP 105: Build Successful Alliances, Coalitions and Partnerships

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this workshop you will be able to: Identify the 7 common misconceptions of alliances, coalitions and partnerships Describe the top 5 challenges and benefits Develop successful partnerships using a 6 step framework Identify successful partnerships and best practices. Improve your effectiveness with alliances, coalitions and partnerships Identify and explore power issues and dynamics

3. THE 7 MISCONCEPTIONS 1.Participants are motivated by the same interests 2.Conflict is not desirable in an alliance, coalition or partnership! 3.There are no power dynamics in their group! 4.Leadership skills used in our home organizations work well in multi-stakeholder organizations! 5.Partnerships are organized the same way as the organization they work in or a partnership is just a process not an organization. 6.The work of a member of an alliance, coalition or partnership is to only attend meetings and share information! 7.An alliance, coalition or partnership can be organized and maintained with very little co-ordination effort!

4. Organizations have different missions, client groups and services so why would they not have different interests. We need to accept self-interest as a principal motivator of the partnership members and as a basis to negotiate a new organization into being. Although we accept self- interest as the place where we begin, we move towards finding common ground so we can collaborate and work together. MISCONCEPTION 1. Participants are motivated by the same interests – often altruism is the assumed motivator in the non-profit sector.

5. Alliance type organizations are vehicles for conflict resolution. Their implicit purpose is to resolve conflict by naming it and working through it. MISCONCEPTION 2. Conflict is not desirable in an alliance, coalition or partnership!

6. PurposefulPeople Environment SYSTEM IN ENVIRONMENT A system and its environment mutually shape each other towards an adaptive goal. Task Environment

7. Massive demographic shift as baby boomers age- increased client base Government cutbacks Funder pressure to rationalize delivery system Shrinking supply of labour Competition TURBULENCE IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT

8. META PROBLEMS AND MESSES To deal effectively with meta-problems, the unit of analysis needs to shift from the level of the single organization to the population of organizations that share a concern for the meta-problem.

9. Adaptive space for collaboration is found between the silos

10. There are always power dynamics in any human system. With each autonomous partner, the likelihood of power issues increases exponentially. MISCONCEPTION 3. There are no power dynamics in their group!

11. POLITICAL SKILLS Successful partnership developers require political and networking abilities. Political competence is needed to understand and resolve conflicts of interest and value dilemmas inherent in systems made up of multiple organizations, each seeking to maintain autonomy while jointly interacting. Political savvy can help change agents to manage their own roles and values in respect to those power dynamics. It can help them avoid being co-opted by certain TS members and thus losing their neutrality.

12. NETWORKING SKILLS Networking skills are also indispensable to TS practitioners. These include the ability to manage lateral relations among autonomous organizations in the relative absence of hierarchical control. Change agents must be able to span the boundaries of diverse organizations, link them together, and facilitate exchanges among them. They must be able to form linkages where none existed and to transform networks into operational systems, capable of joint task performance. (Cummings, Worley, Organization Development and Change 1996, p 471)

13. Traditionally what we deem as leadership is what we see used in hierarchically organized structures with centralized power. When power is dispersed amongst organization partners as in multi-stakeholder processes, a different form of leadership is required. I call it lateral leadership. MISCONCEPTION 4. Leadership skills used in our home organizations work well in multi-stakeholder organizations!

14. LATERAL LEADERSHIP acrosspower with Leadership across and power with - rather than up and down- is what leadership looks like in a TS, whether shown by member or staff. What it is ….

15. LATERAL LEADER …. Fosters a culture of inclusion and sense of belonging and ownership Builds trust amongst participants Develops a common language to provide the infrastructure for conversation and dialogue-become a bridge across organizational cultures Models emotional literacy and honesty Lets go of control and process outcomes Structures meetings Fosters a learning culture Builds the architecture of a new group Creates bridges across cultural divides-organizational or ethno- cultural

16. A LATERAL LEADER …. Undertakes conflict mediation through negotiation Builds a group myth and culture through storytelling, the why, what, when and how of the group Uses tools such as strategic planning, icebreakers and participative policy planning to help move the group forward Uses effective questioning as opposed to advocacy and direction to encourage thinking and learning Builds a very broad communication loop Accepts self-interest as a principal motivator Holds the groups vision

17. Partnerships can function as democratic organizations if they are organized on a power sharing model. MISCONCEPTION 5 Partnerships are organized the same way as the organization. They work in or a partnership is just a process not an organization.

18. What is a Trans-Organizational System (TS)? TS's are functional social systems existing between single organizations and societal systems. They are able to make decisions and perform tasks on behalf of their member organizations, although members maintain their separate organizational identities and goals.

19. In contrast to most organizations, TS's tend to be under- organized, relationships among organizations are loosely coupled; leadership and power are dispersed among autonomous organizations, rather than hierarchically centralized, and commitment and membership are tenuous, as member organizations attempt to maintain their autonomy while jointly performing. (Cummings, Worley Organization Development and Change, pg. 467 )

20. Networked computers not only provided the form of a new organizational model but also support the function of the new form.

21. HIERARCHICAL TS STRUCTURE CEO or Co-ordinator Sub-Committees Decision making body

22. Co-ordination Team Co-ordination Team Comprised of staff and chairpersons D EMOCRATIC TS STRUCTURE Organizations of Origin

23. The work of any organization is to transform knowledge. You do that through decision making. If no decisions are ever made, then the process is not an organization. MISCONCEPTION 6 The work of a member of an alliance, coalition or partnership is to only attend meetings and share information!

24. COMPARING ORGANIZATIONS TO TS ORGANIZATIONS Organizations Manage knowledge to achieve desired results. Are comprised of knowledge specialists and generalists who manage the interface between specialties. Trans-organizations Manage knowledge Managed in a similar fashion to any organization comprised of specialists With TSs, the organizations holds specialized knowledge rather than individuals.

25. THE WORK OF A TS The TS must bridge those specialty identities and accountabilities of member organizations in order to produce new knowledge that can purposefully adapt to the turbulent environment.

26. A TS needs more co-ordination not less, since it needs to transcend so many organizational boundaries and interests. MISCONCEPTION 7 An alliance, coalition or partnership can be organized and maintained with very little co-ordination effort!

27. CONCLUSIONS … Alliances Coalitions and Partnerships are an emerging form of organization They require a lot of co-ordination and different skill sets They are inherently political Leadership involves facilitating the process forward rather than pushing ahead towards an end goal

28. REFERENCES Cummings, Thomas G. Trans-organizational Development. Research in Organizational Behaviour,JAI Press. Vol. 6 (1984), pp 367 – 422. Cummings, Thomas G. and Christopher G. Worley. Organization Development and Change. Southwestern College Publishing, 1996. Alliances Coalitions and Partnerships, Building Collaborative Organizations by Joan M. Roberts

29. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Having completed this workshop you are now able to: 1.Identify the 7 common misconceptions of alliances, coalitions and partnerships 2.Describe the top 5 challenges and benefits 3.Develop successful partnerships using a 6 step framework 4.Identify successful partnerships and best practices. 5.Improve your effectiveness with alliances, coalitions and partnerships 6.Identify and explore power issues and dynamics

30. CAP 105: Build Successful Alliances, Coalitions and Partnerships