The Success Factors that are in the Partnership Agreements building block are:

Partnership Agreements

  • Clear roles & responsibilities **
  • Clarifying Process (e.g. Pace of development **, open and frequent)
  • Communication **
  • Shared leadership (Members share a stake in the process and outcomes **, multiple layers of participation **)

CLEAR ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, AND PROCESSES

Roles and responsibilities, decision-making, leadership, communication, and commitment are all fundamental parts of effective partnerships. Unfortunately, partnerships often fail when there are different expectations as to how these guidelines should be implemented. Clarity and agreement as to how partners work together are as important as what partners are working on.

Having a clear Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), set of Operating Guidelines or another document that helps clarify all of the critical operational aspects of your partnership is important. However, you can also use tools like the RACI Responsibility Charting tool to help start the conversations around roles and responsibilities or even help to further build on an MOU.