What makes partnerships work?

Having established that partnerships are important in achieving sustained cost reduction for our clients, I now want to explore some ideas about what makes a partnership work and what might make it break down. I recently went to a conference about partnerships, where Jonathan Lewis from the Social Investment Business made some pretty provocative statements, some of which I will examine here.

“Partnerships are more likely to work if the people involved are good at relationships.”

People who are good at relationships know how to communicate well with others, how to listen and be assertive. They also know how important it is to step back sometimes rather than always being bullish, and how important it is to allow trust to develop between parties.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that these skills will be invaluable in any business relationship, including partnerships.

When working on cost reduction projects, we need to listen well to our clients to understand their changing needs and priorities, and they need to listen to us to understand why we are making certain recommendations and what that means for them. Essentially, all parties need to be able to communicate clearly with the others.

All parties need to learn to trust the others too; that we are working towards a common goal.  I have worked on projects where it has seemed that stakeholders have tried to undermine us. When this happens, it is because we and our client sponsor have failed to work with that stakeholder to build understanding and trust.

“Partnerships work best if all parties are open-minded.”

This is particularly important in a consultancy situation like ours, where an open-minded approach and a willingness to learn from each other is essential. If a client stakeholder believes that they know more than us, they may try to prove this by not providing the information we need to be successful. Alternatively, if an Expense Reduction Analysts analyst believes that they know more than a client and are not willing to listen, they may miss out on additional insights that could make a significant difference to the outcome of their work. Either way, the partnership is less successful in its aim of sustained cost reductions.

It is therefore important to have a strong sponsor within the client company and a strong client manager within Expense Reduction Analysts, working together to ensure that egos do not get in the way of successful project delivery.

“Like who you are working with.”

In theory, liking each other is not in any way necessary provided all parties behave professionally. But, at the end of the day, we are people – and if we like each other, it is inevitable that working together will be more enjoyable and therefore easier to sustain.

Conversely, dislike could stop a partnership from being formed in the first place or put strain on an existing partnership. Perhaps we would all benefit from being more open about this. If you really want to improve your cost management and like what Expense Reduction Analysts has to offer, but really do not like your counterpart, then why not let us know? We would probably be able to introduce you to someone else, and that small change could bring far greater benefit to both parties.

The other thing we can do is work hard to make ourselves more likeable. Is it really that hard to show an interest in those you are in partnership with, helping them out and being friendly?

These points that Jonathan raised all highlight the human side of partnerships and how the way in which we interact with each other can affect their success. And people sometimes suggest that cost reduction is simply about spreadsheets…think again!