Partnering – Reward

Last weekend my eldest daughter and I engaged on a project. A grand recycling and repurposing project! Over the last 14 years I have gathered a useful array of ‘this will be useful’ items of wood. Old fence posts, old pallets, old decking and parts of fence panels, and this weekend was to be their grand repurposing. They now would piece together to become a ‘garden lounge bench’. Together, Sophie and I partnered sharing ideas, tools and some elbow grease to work on the bench.

As the picture shows, before its painting, it does resemble a lounge bench and once the cushion covers arrive it will hopefully prove to be a useful addition to once again meet up to six friends in our garden. As I reflected on the enjoyment of working with it with my daughter, I considered why she partnered with me.

She knew I was quite capable of making the bench, so I am sure one of the reasons for partnering was because she enjoyed the time together. Maybe it was the problem solving of making the bench with just the leftover wood that we had. There was of course the end result, the reward of the bench completed, the sense of satisfaction that we had made that and made it together.

In the last of our series of blogs, where we have seen that partnering can be a catalyst for something better, share expertise and diversity, can bring us support we need, we now consider that partnering should bring reward. There should be an end product, just like our recycled bench, that rewards us.

So, what rewards can we expect when we partner with others?

Product

The most obvious one is that partnering should bring the reward of the product. If it is business, it should enable us to deliver more of our product, improve our product or improve efficiency. There should be a monetary reward too. If it is education, when we partner with others, it should enable us to deliver a better service for the children and families that we serve. If we are partnering for a charity, it again should enable a better service for the group that we serve. I was recently on the receiving end of a pitch for business. The person pitching shared what benefits it would bring when they partner with us. When you make the decision to partner with someone, it is important to establish what rewards are we both looking for. It’s important to establish times to review whether it is still delivering that and we should regularly review what reward is our partnering bringing.

Reputation

Sometimes the reward is your reputation. When you partner with an organisation that helps you deliver the service well, your standards go up and the reward is your reputation. For example, as a business, when you partner with an IT company they should ensure your IT systems work, which in turn ensures you never have downtime so that you can always help your customers. What is key again is to be clear on what you are both looking for. Within education, when we partner with an organisation to support children, and the children improve in their performance or wellbeing, then both you and the partner’s reputation grow in standing.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu, is the African concept of ‘I am human because of the other’. It is the principle that a key part of being human is that we look after one another and that we cannot be truly happy when just serving our own needs. One of the rewards of partnering can be Ubuntu. This is especially true when we give to our partners. When our advice, care or work helps someone, we feel this reward in our pleasure sensors that we have made a difference to someone else. We should seek opportunity to partner to bring Ubuntu. Whether that is working with people that we can support or looking to develop those we partner with.

In conclusion

Partnering with others can bring reward. Maybe it’s obvious that we are looking for the benefit to our product, but consider also that our reputation and our sense of developing others can grow as a result of good partnering.

· What outcome do I want to improve? What would it look like if we partner on it?

· How will this partnering improve my reputation?

· What opportunities will it bring to develop ‘Ubuntu’ in me and my organisation?

Enjoy the rewards of partnering.