Strategic Relational Partners

Partnerships can be a wonderful experience - or a horrible nightmare! Just ask any person who has been married for more than a decade - especially if they have been married more than once! Most partnerships would probably admit that there is a little bit of heaven and a little bit of hell mingled in together.

Strategic partnerships have a synergistic impact on those they serve. Hollywood learned the power of strategic partnerships where opposites were paired together. From Abbott and Costello or Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin of the old black and white television days to Paula and Simon on American Idol, strategic partnerships have impacted our lives. Sometimes they made us laugh, sometimes cry, and sometimes they made us angry.

I had the opportunity on 2 different occasions to be a guest on the Fox News “Hannity and Colmes” Show. The show was extremely popular because of the pairing together of a democratic liberal, Colmes, and a republican conservative, Hannity. While in front of the camera, they projected very entertaining hostility, before and after the show they seemed to be friends. The key to that partnership was the word strategic.

It was strategic because of the tension provided between the two creating an entertaining discussion for the viewing audience. Every person and every organization has unique abilities, skills, potential impact, etc. However, every person or organization also has limitations, faults, and weaknesses. Blessed is the one who understands his or her strengths and weaknesses.

Organizations or individuals with the same strengths who attempt partnering often end up competing. Partners with the same weaknesses enhance the possibility of failure. However a strategic partnership is one where each needs the strengths of the other to multiply effectiveness and fulfillment, much like the Chinese symbolism you see in the yin and yang.

But when a strategic partnership is also , you have a powerhouse combination! These partnerships not only experience a multiplication of impact, but because of the relational aspect, are more likely to experience a long and fruitful partnership.

Too often, we look for strategic partnerships and hope that they become relational,instead of allowing a courtship process to see if the partnership can be relational or not. Many organizations have realized, after it was too late, the fallout from a non-relational partnership.

If a partnership is entered into by both parties with purely selfish motives, the partnership is doomed to fail. In fact, not only will it fail, but there will be negative backlash and consequences.

Also, as in courtship, if only one partner pursues the other, at best the partnership will be one-sided, with the pursuing partner always serving the needs of the pursued.

Rachel’s Challenge has been honored to partner with some wonderful organizations. Some have been temporary and some are more permanent. Some have been more strategic, and some more relational.

Here are some personal observations that will hopefully be helpful in any strategic, relational partnership.

#1 Make sure your potential partner has strengths that will compliment your areas of need, and vice versa

#2 Make sure the potential partner is not a competitor, and therefore a threat to your own client base

#3 Make sure that you are willing to share, as well as receive from the partnership

#4 Make sure that both the primary and secondary leadership groups in the partnership have meaningful interaction and are compatible

#5 Target goals that the partnership can accomplish more easily than either of the partners could achieve alone

#6 Develop a strategy for decision making that involves both partnerships

#7 Communicate, communicate, communicate!!!