• Start Free Trial
• Become a Member

Topics

• Setting Your Strategy and Plan
• Channels and New Media
• Measuring Your Impact
• Professional Development
• Change Communication
• Manager and Leader Communication

22 August 2008

"Park your ego at the door" to maintain effective partnerships

Report cites best-practice examples for building productive internal relationships.

by Annie Waite, Global Editor, the Internal Comms Hub

"To build and maintain effective partnerships in the workplace, each partner needs to park their ego at the door, to own up to where they can add value and where their partner can add value," says Graeme Ginsberg (pictured, right), Melcrum's managing editor of research and reports.

"It's also important to understand where they can't add value," Ginsberg continues.

He offers this advice having collated How to develop effective internal communication partnerships, a new Melcrum report designed to provide communicators with insights into partnering with other functions to add the most value.

What other functions think of internal comms
By learning how to develop effective partnerships, internal communications (IC) teams can be more effective at cross-functional initiatives like engagement, change, communicating strategy and so on, and be taken more seriously as business partners inside the organization.

A result of six months of research, the report provides advice about how internal communicators can build, develop and maintain these relationships with other "partners” (leaders, business units and other functions such as HR, Marketing, Corporate Communication, Customer Services) to deliver key organizational objectives. IC practitioners answered key questions including:

• Why do they (other functions) think it’s important to partner with us?
• Where do they think we add our greatest value as partners?
• How do they think we might improve?

The report includes IC advice and case studies giving the perspective of the key partner as well as the IC practitioner's. "Although as internal communicators we spend much of our time working with stakeholders, it’s quite rare to hear those stakeholders sharing their views about what it’s like to work with us," Ginsberg says.

Honesty is key
Offering his advice about creating effective workplace partnerships, Ginsberg says "Firstly, it’s important to be honest about where each partner can and can't add value. Articulate this value and why appropriately – clarity and sensitivity are key."
Ginsberg's advice for how communicators can add real value in a partnership
Strong partnerships are founded on good early relationships and understanding
• Hold a meeting to get things started – preferably face-to-face. Decide upfront how you’re going to work, what the objectives are, agree roles and responsibilities and make sure any areas of overlap are clearly mapped out. This ensures there’s no confusion about exactly what needs to be done and by whom.
• Representing roles and responsibilities figuratively may be helpful, particularly where projects have different phases and the depth and nature of involvement might change.
• Ensure key people are involved from the start. Make sure everyone has an opportunity to get their perspective across. If meeting with senior sponsors of the project such as the CEO, make sure that all the key partners are present or have appropriate input into the conversation.

Have a solid project planning and management system
• Partnerships break down when there’s no one who is ultimately responsible for the success of the project.
• Ensure the project plan is forward-thinking, with the project and business objectives clearly visible at every stage. Without this, there’s a danger that partners will become too siloed, focusing on the roles they need to perform without considering the broader aims and context.
• Try and meet regularly. People are juggling many projects and continuity and consistency will be key.
• Maintaining a sense of collaboration is also important for maintaining strong relationships (not to mention keeping sight of the project objectives). This doesn't need to be restricted to meetings – take advantage of web 2.0 elements like wikis and shared project-management software.

Question and challenge your partner
The value of having a partner is to deliver objectives as well as possible. Sensitivity is key, certainly, but it’s also important to speak up.

In addition to the need to "park your ego at the door", Ginsberg advises that the nature of the objectives is likely to guide who would be best placed to manage the project.

It's also important to balance the need for someone to steer the project, but to remember that "some projects are lengthy and involve different phases – it may be that the helming will change depending on the level of involvement needed."

Be open minded
At the outset, it's important to try to keep an open mind, Ginsberg says, particularly if the the project is a new type of venture and uncharted territory.

"A project that may initially seem to be HR-focused, marketing-focused or internal communication-focused, for example, may turn out not to be as assumed once explored," says Ginsberg.

Agree to working practices
Another key finding from this research, Ginsberg says, is to understand how you and your partner would like to work in the partnership, and how you can best work together to achieve the project objectives.

"There’s no point entering a partnership as an unwilling partner," Ginsberg continues.

"Take into account that there’s likely to be some history when it comes to working together. A certain sensitivity and/or firmness might be needed if you see the partnership needing to work differently to how it did in the past given the nature of this project," he says.

"It’s all about the objectives of the project and keeping these in mind."

Beware of "groupthink"
At the same time, Ginsberg says, it's important to be aware that if an established relationship from working together in the past exists, then there’s a danger of "groupthink" emerging.

This is when the team has become too comfortable or too afraid of conflict, and won’t be self-critical enough or try anything new.

"It’s important for someone to be brave and take a step back or even to get a fresh perspective in the team from an independent party," says Ginsberg.

Internal consulting approach
Each case study included in the report features examples of how internal communicators have worked successfully with partners in other business areas to deliver a more effective result than either party could have delivered working alone.

For example, Charlie Nordblom, vice president Strategic Internal Communications at Volvo Group defines a model for identifying responsibilities during engagement when it comes to internal communications, HR and leadership.

About the report: How to develop effective internal communication partnerships
Case studies include:
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Infosys Technologies
• Marks & Spencer
• Reuters
• Southwest Airlines
• Sun Microsystems
• Vodafone
• Volvo

Thought leaders:
• Roger D’Aprix – working with senior leaders.
• Gary Grates – partnering on change projects.
• Richard Mosley – living the brand.
• Tom Rath (Gallup) – engagement surveys.
• John Smythe – employee engagement.

To order the report, contact Melcrum:
(Hub members get the lowest possible price on all Melcrum products)
• UK/European Office: +44 (0) 20 8600 4670
• North American office: 866 MELCRUM or 312.379.6500
• Australian office: +61 (0) 2 8249 8352
Online: www.melcrum.com
Email: customerservice@melcrum.com

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) outlines its internal consulting approach to partnering, where IC provides consulting to internal "clients".

This case study defines the five key phases of a consulting project (Consulting Cycle) and the activities the internal consultants need to undertake to reach the outcomes they’re working towards. HMRC also provides "killer questions" that the consultants can use at the different stages of the Cycle.

Experts on change, engagement, branding, leadership and surveys also talk about what the challenges and best practice might be when partnering.

Have your say
Have you used these techniques to forge partnerships at your organization? What systems have you found not to work when collaborating with different functions?

What other suggestions do you have for improving partnerships within organizations – have you had problems challenging a partner in a different function, or do you have tips for handling conflict between teams or individuals?

Other recommendations:
Melcrum report: How to develop effective internal communication partnerships

Virtual collaboration on the increase

Internal communicators assist collaboration

Got a news story? Contact the newsdesk

News archive