Full Circle Associates

I was following links today from the KM4Dev list. Joitske Hulsebosch suggested this one, Intersectoral Partnerships - Seven Lessons in Civil Society-Business-Government Partnership. ISC (intersectoral collaborations) are the reality today in development work, which is theoretically heaven but in practice, possibly hell! Of the seven lessons, I was most attracted by Lesson 5 --ISCs mix diversity paradoxically.

An ISC is based in the understanding that some of the most significant exchanges can occur between people who have great differences since one sector's strength is often another's weakness. The assets and resources of civil society arising from its focus upon social systems are a rich mixture for those of businesses' which arise from economic systems, and governments' from political systems.

ISCs are paradoxical because these differences are also the source of the major challenges in building an ISC. The different assets and strengths are accompanied by different goals and values. This paradox operationally means that ISCs must be structurally loose and non-hierarchical to manage the differences, but operationally disciplined to achieve project goals; they must maintain the broad development vision, but obtain results that benefit the participating organizations. The ISC must be flexible enough to allow participation in a variety of ways and with different degrees of commitment.

This seems to follow on from Monday's post about trying to support community inventiveness. It is also paradoxical. Or perhaps it requires, as the article notes, flexibility. And... inventiveness!

KM4D, collaboration, partnerships inventiveness