“Partnership is giving, taking, learning, teaching, offering the greatest possible benefit while doing the least possible harm”- Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents.

A purposeful partnership is truly and sincerely sharing the same values, goals and purposes with an entity’s strategic partners and stakeholders. Purposeful partnerships involve giving, taking, teaching, and offering the greatest possible benefit while doing the least possible harm to an organization’s partners and/ or stakeholders.

The ability to engage in a purposeful partnership is an essential quality of a successful partnership. Through purposeful partnerships, organizations get to support each others’ shared values, goals and future plans hence the need to focus on the necessary pillars for purposeful partnerships.

Through purposeful partnerships, organizations support each other through project and program implementation, capital buildup, brand exposure as well as break through into new markets. Therefore, purposeful partnerships are cardinal for organizations to nurture mutually beneficial partnerships.

Forging purposeful partnerships therefore, call for organizations to find the right strategic partners – trust and a great rapport is paramount.

These are some essential pillars to engaging in purposeful partnerships;

 

Right strategic partners;

This may seem obvious. In reality though, this isn’t always the case. Organizations are drawn to partnerships for different reasons-not necessarily shared values, goals and visions.

Organizations take into consideration the mission, what their stakeholders care about, brand identity, organizational cultures, what their employees believe in, e.t.c.

The right partners ideally posses shared vales, goals, organizational cultures and have visions aligned to their respective partners.

However, selecting the right partners might not be self evident but selecting the right partners makes all the difference for the parties getting into partnership. Some elements to look out for include the readiness to invest in the partnership, shared values, technical proficiency and organizational culture compatibility.

Therefore, as organizations sift through their potential partners, it’s paramount to address potential hurdles as well as skill sets to get an accurate view on the possibilities.

Ultimately, strategic partners should be mutually agreeable on their goals and visions for a purposeful partnership.

 

Shared values and clear goals;

Once organizations have settled on their ideal partner or partners, they have discussions on goals they intent to achieve through their purposeful partnership.

A partnership with shared values and a clear plan translates into tangible and measurable results. Crucial to shared values and clear goals is communication and transparency-the higher the transparency, the higher the chances of a purposeful partnership.

Once the partners involved have been agreed upon, they get to identify their mutual goals and confirm commitment to the partnership.

The partners thus highlight their objectives, market view, strategies, assignments and respective responsibilities and the Return On Investment (ROI) at the very least ensuring that the commitments made are realistic.

As the partnership progresses, the partners take a realistic view and address barriers that pop up and refine their engagement goals as a means to a purposeful partnership.

Once these goals are on paper, partners have a role of ensuring that every member in their team is clearly and consistently informed of the same. These goes a long way to ensure that the energies of every members of the organization are headed in the same direction hence the accumulated drive will kick in and create an exponential force.

 

Invest in knowledge and skills;

Purposeful partnerships provide a platform for strategic partners to share knowledge, transfer and build skills across board in the course of their respective program and/ or project implementation life cycle.

These learning, sharing of knowledge and skills will help build towards their purpose as they make their respective and shared impact in their partnerships and sectors of operation.

 

Nature the partnership;

Partnerships that get it right are committed to their engagement- having the right people in the right seats with an agreed upon level of commitment towards executing and growing the partnership.

Through the time spend in the engagement, partners get to nature and grow the partnership as they get to share their values and goals.

The dynamics and synergies are created and shared when organizations work together. This is critical especially at the commencement of a partnership.

Setting clear goals is salient to ensure that partners are working towards desirable outcomes based on the goals set out. It then means that various partners involved ought to clearly understand what they are working towards through the partnership and are receptive and aligned to their partners’ goals the best way possible.

Consequently, creating purposeful partnerships offer insight into successful implementation of philanthropic projects, programs and activities. Purposeful partnerships facilitate access, alignment and development of a prepared workforce with the necessary knowledge and skills partnerships long-term success.

It is therefore imperative that partners give, take, learn, teach and offer the greatest possible benefit while doing the least possible harm with an aim of creating purposeful partnerships.