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.  

    

  

 

  

Daddy What do you Do?

Last night I'm sitting on the couch with my 7 year old daughter and I asked her, "Do you know what daddy does for work?" She pauses, then looks at me puzzled and says, "You go to your office right?" So, I'm thinking to myself, wow, my own kid doesn't really know what I do for a living.  I've posed this question before to my mother-in-law and she says:  "I just tell everybody that you work for some nonprofit."  Even my sister, in an attempt to explain what I do to a friend said, "You tell her what you do, since I'm not really sure what you do." Such is the life of a consultant in the public domain.  

I find myself having to tell stories about what I do, especially to those that work in the private sector.  Facilitation & Planning:  "Hmm.....its kinda like doing a business plan with nonprofits, foundations and government agencies.  You help guide them through the process of visualizing what the preferred destination looks like, provide a roadmap to get there and put in highway signs to see if they are on course to arriving at their destination.  You also put in benchmarks along the way so you can determine whether or not you are on the right track, with periodic check-ins to change course if necessary."

  

Public Policy:  "Once the plan is place, we have to determine what type of community/public support is necessary and what types of financing options are available (i.e. state, federal, municipal, local government support).  It's somewhat like going to a bank to fund your business plan, except its public money.  In some cases, there may not be money involved at all.  Rather, you might be looking at a state or federal law or a specific policy that needs to be put in place so you can open for business or ensure that your business runs smoothly.  In other cases you may just want to educate the public on the implications if action is not taken.  (i.e. global warming/carbon emissions)    

Research & Evaluation:  Now that you have your doors are open for business, you want to know how well your business is performing.  Using scientific research methods, you seek to determine how well you are meeting the targeted needs of your clients.  Is your plan working? Does it need to be modified? What types of success stories can you tell to inform others of your impact?  What are the hard numbers or percentages that articulate  levels of success?   

When I speak to other consultants in the field, we often talk about setting up a support group to talk about these and other issues in educating the public of our work.  For now, this explanation still may draw blank looks from my 7 year old, but hopefully for those of you not currently in 2nd grade this explanation will suffice.