Sense of
Ownership
Kraemer (1993) describes the development of a sense of ownership among
partners in a collaborative:
"Ownership develops when partners play a key role in formulating
and implementing a project and understand the benefits of participation.
The recognition by each partner that he will be better able to achieve
his own goals by collaborating and helping his partners reach their respective
goals is the best way to ensure partners are committed for the long haul."
(p. 23)
Kraemer (1993) makes the following suggestions for fostering a sense
of ownership and trust among participants:
- "Stress from the outset that your collaboration is a participatory,
democratic process. You need to follow through on this promise and
translate this from rhetoric to reality. Leaders of a collaboration need
to set examples of respect and interest in equalizing power relationships
and convey a sense of a shared learning experience....
- Provide opportunities for partners to get to know each other and
one another's organization. You need to do presentations and share
information. If you think it's appropriate, social activities can be planned.
If relations are too formal or too new for socializing, bring food and
drink to meetings. It usually makes people more comfortable. Hold meetings
at each other's offices and schedule site visits as a way for people to
get to know one another.
- Discuss goals. Goal discussions can open people up to each other
and make people realize they have common interests in working together.
It may also make them more aware of the competing interests and needs in
the community. The reality is that resources must be balanced among all
these interests. If people are brought into the process of balancing resources,
they often are more accepting of the trade-offs.
- Be patient. People need to work together and know each other
to build trust. It helps to build a history of working together. Over and
over again, program people stress the importance of personal relationships
in building what are often risky collaborations between organizations.
It's always a long process." (p. 24)
References
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