• Time to build the partnership.
• Shared mandates or agendas.
• The development of compatible ways of working, and flexibility.
• Good communication, perhaps aided by a facilitator.
• Collaborative decision-making, with a commitment to achieving consensus.
• Effective organizational management.
The factors that lead to the failure of a partnership are just as important as the success factors of a partnership, because the members of a partnership should be even more aware of trouble spots within a partnership. The failure factors are listed below: .
• A history of conflict among key interests.
• One partner manipulates or dominates.
• Lack of clear purpose.
• Unrealistic goals.
• Differences of philosophy and ways of working.
• Lack of communication.
• Unequal and unacceptable balance of power and control.
• Key interests missing from the partnership.
• Hidden agendas.
• Financial and time commitments outweigh the potential benefits.
It may be easier to develop an appropriate approach to partnership if you have a simple theoretical framework for thinking about the wider issues of participation. Sherry Arnstein, writing in 1969 about citizen involvement in planning processes in the United States, described a ladder of participation.
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Manipulation and therapy are both non participative. The aim is to cure or educate the participants. The proposed plan is best and the job of participation is to achieve public support by public relations. Informing is a most important first step to legitimate participation. But too frequently the emphasis is on a one way flow of information. No channel for feedback. Consultation is a legitimate step attitude surveys, neighborhood meetings and public enquiries. Placation, for example, is a co-option of hand-picked 'worthies' onto committees.
