MGT644: Strengthening Your Partnerships

Partnerships, whether internal or external, are more important than ever in reaching organizational goals. Strong partnerships can mean achieving objectives, yet changing boundaries and responsibilities make it difficult to build and sustain partnerships.

Course outline:

• Defining Partnerships: Learners become familiar with and watch a video of two individuals talking about their partnership. The facilitator leads a discussion about the state of this partnership, and learners discuss attributes of successful partnerships they have had and share their experiences.
• Understanding the Relationship: The facilitator introduces six Partnership Checkpoints—Outcomes, Benefits, Barriers, Approach, Support, Measurement. These critical areas provide a comprehensive framework for effective partnerships and provide a means for analyzing and strengthening them. Learners receive the Partnership Planner to use in their own partnerships.
• Exploring Their Own Partnerships: Learners assess their own partnerships against the Checkpoints, using each other’s experience to obtain a group assessment and consider implications. The facilitator guides learners through a deeper study of the Checkpoints, revisiting the video partnership through a role-play activity to improve their understanding of each other’s perspectives of their partnership.
• Challenges to Partnership Success: The facilitator guides a discussion about barriers learners have faced in their own partnerships or observed in others. The class identifies top barriers and, in small groups, begins to troubleshoot them.
• Moving Forward in Partnerships: After discovering the importance of clear roles and responsibilities, learners share tools they have used to clarify and track roles and responsibilities. Learners consider the impact of communication methods on partnership success. They capture insights for their own partnership and discuss best practices at their tables. In pairs, they seek insights and suggestions about support.
• Measuring Your Partnerships: Learners see the necessity of both quantitative and qualitative measures. Focusing on the qualitative, learners are introduced to the partnership scorecard and how, in the interest of strengthening the partnership, a scorecard can make a discussion more objective.
• Action Planning for Strengthening Partnerships: Learners select categories for measuring their partnerships and discuss at their tables. Participants capture insights about scorecard categories, as well as quantitative measures, for their own partnership. A Checkpoint activity helps them decide their most critical next step. They conclude by declaring the actions they will take to strengthen their partnership.

Learning outcomes:

• Effectively address poor performance in a firm, fair, and consistent manner
• Minimize the impact of chronic performance problems on people, productivity, and profitability
• Provide problem performers with a clear understanding of what they must do to improve and the consequences of failing to do so
• Encourage people to take ownership of, and be accountable for, improving their work performance

Accrediting Associations:

• HRCI - 3.5 PDC
• SHRM - 3.5 PDC

Applies toward the following certificates:

• Advanced Technical Leadership
• Performance Management