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Implementing solutions calls for public entrepreneurs to be agile and innovative, a

clear difference from the way problem solvers have typically operated in the past.

At the point of implementation, collaboration using collective intelligence and the

resources of other individuals and groups might be the only way to convert ideas to
impact and make your idea a reality.

The magnitude and urgency of challenges such as climate change, social inequality,
and technology-generated un(der)employment calls upon us to work together. With the
right design, and far more effectively than if we acted separately, we can
concentrate resources and energy to tackle our problems.

As Kofi Annan wrote: “Partnerships have already demonstrated their transformative

impact. In recent years, we have seen collaboration between the private sector and
international philanthropists leading to significant reductions in malaria deaths.
Partnerships between mobile-phone providers and governments have greatly increased
access to finance for Africa’s poor. And collaboration between civil society and
intergovernmental organizations has vastly improved access to credit for
smallholder farmers and helped raise agricultural productivity.”

We are witnessing how collaboration is helping to accelerate the pathway to the

funding and development of a coronavirus vaccine.

Although many well-known partnerships involve things like big governments, UN

agencies, global foundations, and brand-name product companies, wherever possible
collaboration should involve the deep participation of the less famous: individuals
and families, neighborhoods and schools, small organizations and businesses,
community organizations and community colleges, all of whom have immense capacity
for action in our communities and around the world.

Creating partners for delivery and implementation is not a simple process. While
private sector collaboration is typically governed by standard contracting
vehicles, such as joint venture agreements, partnerships that cross sectors can
take many forms. They can be more or less formal. They can involve the sharing of a
wide range of resource types. They can implicate actors from entirely different
settings, who often lack common interests, or even a shared vision of success.

Skills in establishing a public partnership are not formally taught, which explains
why there are so many toolkits on the topic available online.

Let’s review the five basic steps needed to create an effective partnership.

First consider whether partners are even needed. What is the rationale for the
partnership? Will it speed the path to problem solving? Given that partners will
add complexity to your project, it is important to be clear about why you need
them, and why you believe you can accomplish more together than alone. To know what
others can contribute and to create the shared imperative for partnership, you
should understand your limits: of capital, legitimacy, expertise, risk, need for
more hands on deck, or other reasons. The partnership must add intrinsic value to
your goal and be a better alternative than if the parties were to work
independently.
All partners need to be clear on their goals and how they want to benefit.

After determining the need to partner you should ascertain who those partners are.
You need to create a clear plan, from which you can generate the “to do list” that
will propel the project forward, by showing who needs to do what and when.
Such checklists have been popularized by The New Yorker writer and surgeon Atul
Gawande in his book, The Checklist Manifesto. Implementation checklists avoid what
Gawande describes as errors of ineptitude – mistakes we make when we fail to use
properly what we already know.

Such lists not only help you remember certain details, they are a check and balance
on the arrogance and hubris that can arise when creative leaders are assumed to
hold instinctual and infallible powers. Implementation checklists avoid what
Gawande describes as errors of ineptitude – the mistakes we make when we fail to
make proper use of what we already know.

Pausing to document the implementation pathway, and revising it based on new

knowledge, can actually speed up implementation. It also helps you confirm which
partners you might need.

To choose your partners, you need to examine your options for addressing your
problem.

Identifying potential partners is not the same as identifying stakeholders – groups

affected by a decision, whose interests need to be considered when designing a
solution.

As nonprofit consulting firm FSG explains, partners need not be stakeholders; they
might be entities such as foundations, businesses and other influencers that have
complementary assets and desire to accomplish the goal, without having a direct
stake in the project at the outset, such as we have seen with data collaboratives.

You will want to identify those with money, membership, skills and talent, the
capacity to publicize the project or with a different risk profile – in other
words, anyone who can bring assets of value to the project.

Once you have identified partners, you need to woo them. You need to set out a
clear and compelling account of the problem, and how solving it aligns with their
interests.

Getting an idea implemented usually depends on getting someone to say yes. Often
this is a busy executive, philanthropist, legislator or developer – someone who may
be hard to reach, let alone persuade.

This is where your letter writing skills will come in handy. But consider whether
that letter should come from you or come from someone who has influence over that
person. You might want to write the letter for someone else to send.

This can be a valuable shortcut for getting things done.

Creating a shared picture of what success looks like helps to sustain the momentum
of engaged partnerships.
Defining a common set of goals, vision of success and objectives is a key part of
partnership development. Partners might have very different reasons to partner, and
different measures of success. Government goals are not the same as those of
business or philanthropy. Success should be defined in a collaborative way, to
arrive at a common mission.

Collaborations are stronger when each partner acknowledges its individual goals.
David Smith of the Presidio Institute calls this “community-centered selfishness,”
emphasizing the need to ensure that the partnership creates value both for
individual members and for the collective.

I had first-hand experience of the challenge of aligning partner goals while

working on the National Lab Day initiative to send tens of thousands of STEM
professionals into schools to teach hands-on lessons. The initiative ultimately
failed, arguably because the goals of one partner, namely for national publicity,
diverged from the substantive goals of the others. National Lab Day garnered the
president of the family foundation that volunteered to coordinate the effort a
great deal of media attention.

But when that president lost a subsequent election for political office and no
longer needed the publicity, he lost interest and his foundation stopped investing
in the project. What started with a bang ended with a whimper. The governance was
not in place to ensure competent leadership and a smooth and lasting transition.
The episode provides further evidence of the need to think through a partnership
strategy from end to beginning.

To avoid those kinds of breakdowns, the Partnering Initiative proposes working

through the following five questions
?

I would add a sixth that can so often make or break a partnership if not agreed to
ahead of time: transparency.

Organizations working together must have a clear vision of how they will
collaborate.

It is not important to settle on a hard and fast typology for collaborative cross-
sectoral partnerships. What matters is having a process through which partners can
come to a shared understanding of the mission and goals of the collaboration and
the roles and responsibilities of each partner. That process should include a risk
assessment and a plan to mitigate risks.

Unlike traditional public sector organizations with their hierarchical management

structures and titles, no one actor in a collaboration has legitimate authority
‘over’ the others. The risk is that a lack of clarity about governance can scuttle
even the most well-intentioned efforts. Management and governance must therefore be
designed and agreed upon if the partnership is to succeed.

Governance challenges are more serious than just poor communication and bad project
planning. Multi-sectoral partnerships, especially with private sector involvement,
can pose ethical challenges and highlight tensions about priorities for achieving
impact. Agribusiness and food conglomerates, for example, might sell products
harmful to health even while they genuinely want to help fight hunger. Fast
fashion, fossil fuel and chemical companies want to be part of climate-focused
public-private partnerships. Social media, finance and credit card companies may
want to share data for public good, but only when it suits their purposes or for a
limited time frame.
Care must be taken to avoid complicity in greenwashing and laundering of corporate
malfeasance through the good publicity of public interest partnerships.

Without a doubt, cross-sectoral partnerships can be fraught for the public problem
solver, while also having significant potential impact.