Top 3 best practice: Partnerships and Forums
In May 2020 we reached out to organisations and bodies across Oxfordshire to ask them what they most valued in the partnerships and forums that they are a part of. Here is their ‘top 3’ of best practice for managing great partnerships and meetings so far:
Share genuine stories, and use this to build trust. People valued the opportunity to go deep sometimes, in sharing stories and using these to understand each other better. While this takes time, it’s well worth it in the long run if it means that you and your partners can work together with more mutual trust and understanding.
Finish meetings with clear actions for participants. It’s easy to have a great discussion, share valuable information, get excited about joint plans, and then leave without committing to the follow up actions that make it all worthwhile. The best partnerships ask organisations to be open and clear about what commitments they are taking away from meetings to act upon.
Think about how meetings connect back to the needs of people and communities. It’s easy to lose sight of this once the people at the heart of organisations work are one further step away. To remedy this, think about how organisations are bringing the views and feedback of their beneficiaries to meetings, and then taking back information about the outcomes. Openly publishing and disseminating information about meetings and forums is well worth the effort.
