Consultant Corner: Why Facilitation is Important in Complex Partnerships

The news continues to be grim:  Many nonprofits will not survive the current economic crisis. Others will have to scale down their offerings to the community or will have to partner with other organizations to meet the growing needs.  Even before this recent wave of economic downturn, the pervasive culture in the nonprofit sector is one of competition for limited resources which adversely impacts collaboration and partnership development.  The reality is one organization alone cannot effectively meet the needs of a community.  However, partnerships can be incredibly difficult to manage and sometimes are not very efficient.  Hence, the need for an outside facilitator.  

The most common issue encountered in complex partnerships--or any partnership for that matter--is communication.  How do you get individuals to share information and be transparent about individual goals and objectives in the context of the broader partnership?  It begins with building relationships and trust.  A skilled, objective facilitator can navigate this process by providing a space conducive to disclosure and relationship building.  The key is to have a facilitator that doesn't have a horse-in-the-race.  An objective voice that can focus on the issues and not the people involved can help move stagnation based on personality conflicts to shared understanding and collaboration.  Not to say that it is easy.  Often times there is historical conflict that permeates deep into the institutions that individuals represent.  In extreme cases, it is important to acknowledge the wounds of the past, but quickly get to a plan for restorative justice.

Second, facilitation can help to document the process of partnership development by defining goals, timelines and key outcomes that are agreed upon by the team.  Invariably, organizations and/or individuals enter partnerships with their own goals in mind.  Some people refer to this as an agenda.  It is incredibly important to invest in the planning of mutual goals and objectives and defining what group success looks like.  Clarity in the plan, specifically around how many people need to be served; hours of operation; identifying space for activities; clear roles and responsibilities and how resources will be distributed will help in the overall management of the partnership.  Also, the documentation of the partnership will allow decision makers to reflect on past thinking when issues arise (document, document, document!)  When partnership amnesia occurs, the documentation provides a history of how decisions and agreements came to be.  

Finally, an independent facilitator allows partner organizations to share leadership and decision making in a fluid way.  Typically, a lead agency assumes leadership in partnership/coalition building which automatically sets the tone for uneven distribution of decision making.  The lead agency is viewed as the authority and not a partner in this type of design.  With an outside facilitator, all agencies are active participants in goal setting and decision making processes which engenders greater trust and builds relationships on equal ground. 

Facilitation is not an exact science.  Make sure you take the time to get referrals for quality facilitation services.  Unfortunately, bad facilitation can set you back even further, so make sure to make informed decisions when choosing a facilitator.