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Section B:
Choosing The Level:
The Bradford Participation Tool
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LEVEL 4: ACTING TOGETHER
Acting together may involve short-term collaboration or forming more permanent partnerships with other interests.
Basics
- Acting together in partnership involves both deciding together and then acting together.
- This means having a common language, a shared vision of what you want, and the means to carry it out.
- Partners need to trust each other as well as agree on what they want to do.
- Effective partnerships take a long time to develop - shot gun marriages are unlikely to work.
- Each partner needs to feel they have an appropriate stake in the partnership and a fair say in what happens.
Where appropriate
Acting together may be appropriate when:
- One party cannot achieve what they want on their own.
- The various interests involved all get some extra benefit from acting together.
- There is commitment to the time and effort needed to develop a partnership.
Acting together is not likely to be appropriate when the following apply:
- One party holds all the power and resources and uses this to impose its own solutions.
- The commitment to partnership is only skin deep.
- People want to have a say in making decisions, but not a long term stake in carrying out solutions.
Methods
Consider the following methods:
- Information giving methods to start the process.
- Methods for deciding together to create a shared vision.
- Team building exercises.
- Design exercises.
- Business planning exercises.
- Interim structures like working parties and steering groups as a focus for decision making and accountability.
- Longer-term structures through which you can work together.
Guidelines
As for Deciding together, plus...
- Spend time getting to know and trust each other.
- Plan for the long-term sustainability of any organisational structure that is needed to implement and maintain schemes.
- Develop a common language, shared vision and corporate accountability.
Checklist
Before taking up a 'acting together' stance consider:
- Are you clear about what you want to achieve, and how flexible you are in pursuing that vision?
- Have you identified potential partners?
- Do you have any evidence that they share a similar vision, and are interested in a partnership with you to achieve it?
- Do you have the time and commitment necessary to form a partnership?
- Are you prepared to share power?
| Section A | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Section C |
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Introduction and Framework Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E |
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