Collaboration between organisations is a matter of survival in these harsh times. But it takes a lot more than mouthing platitudes to make it work
‘Collaborators’ was a word once used to describe those shunned people, who, rather than fight the Nazis, went along with them in the hope of keeping out of harm's way. But now ‘collaboration’ is all the rage—at least in the small world of those interested in effective commissioning and delivering social outcomes.
It is said we must no longer work in our silos, but be open to working across the public, private, and voluntary sector divides. We must pair or triple up with other organisations or we will not achieve what we want. The danger, however, is that collaboration becomes an end in itself rather than what it should be about—that is, delivering better outcomes.
The role of collaboration as a positive force is clear to increasing numbers within the charity sector. At New Philanthropy Capital and the Charity Finance Group’s 'Impact Leadership' conference last week, much of the talk revolved around the fact that collaboration is often the only way to really achieve your aims. Given that charities are mission driven, they therefore have what verges on a duty to work with others.
This is sometimes due to the economies of scale, and sometimes because you simply wouldn’t win the contract otherwise. Very often, and whether there is a contract in sight or not, it is because the needs of the user or family require more than one set of expertise. If you want to ensure that prisoners do not re-offend, you need skills from the public, private and charity sectors to deal with issues of mental health, housing, and violence management. You also need to have the IT and the know-how to carry out case management and evaluate what you do. You won’t find all of these in one provider.
But collaboration isn’t easy. The problems are often to do with the way that policy, contracts and legal liability are constructed. I hope that the new institution based at London South Bank University, ‘Collaborate’, will shout loudly when these sort of things hold it back.
As important new research by NPC and Impetus Trust, the venture philanthropists, shows, commissioners can help enable collaboration by creating a supportive environment, ensuring tendering processes give charities sufficient time to work through a successful and durable collaboration, and setting a fair price for the work to allow charities to make a margin and grow.
But it is also about understanding an organisation’s culture so you can build a relationship based on trust—a point that also emerges strongly in the NPC/Impetus research. This does not necessarily mean working with organisations that are very like you—ie, for-profit or voluntary sector—but involves finding out if you can actually work together. This takes a bit of time. It’s about corporate and organisational culture and attitudes, but also—and this cannot be ignored—personal chemistry.
It is also about working out in advance what happens if things hit a pinch point. To take an example, if a contract begins to cost more to deliver than was bargained for, the for-profit instinct will naturally be to try and minimise the losses. One hopes that, in contrast, a charitable organisation will try its hardest to squeeze those resources in order to continue to deliver its services to beneficiaries. If the two are in partnership that divergence can cause problems. Better to talk early, not at the moment the crisis happens.
Collaboration, working together, and building partnerships is so often the way to help those most in need. But we will have to do lots more than just getting everyone to use the right lingo.
