collaborate with research partners to shape ideas and activities to help create strong relationships.
Key principles for partnership planning
NCCPE identify three main phases for part- nership planning:
l Getting started: including scoping, finding and building partnerships
l Working together: including govern- ance, delivering and reviewing partnerships
l What next: including revising, sustain- ing, ending or scaling partnerships
During all of these phases, it is vital to discuss the items listed above with your partner: communication is critical for suc- cessful partnerships.
As part of a Development Programme workshop on partnership, project staff used partnership planning cards to explore the different stages to working in partnership. The cards illustrate the full lifecycle of a partnership and key questions to ask at any point in the three phases previously mentioned.
Using the partnership planning cards, projects considered questions such as:
l ‘What do we hope to achieve from work- ing in partnership?’
l ‘How will we ensure we communicate well within our partnership team’ and
l ‘Has this been a successful partnership for me, my colleagues, and organisation?’
The fact that the partnership planning cards cover the entire life cycle of a part- nership meant that they were suitable and — relevant to all of the projects, despite each being at different stages in their part- nerships. For example, some projects have a commitment from a university partner while others are still working with NCCPE to identify a suitable partner.
Activities to try
The partnership planning cards can be downloaded from NCCPE’s website (www.
publicengagement.ac.uk/MUPI) and can be used at any point in partnership working – from scoping out a potential partnership to when a project comes to a close. Whether you are looking to initiate a partnership, assessing whether to end or continue a partnership, or are somewhere in between, it might be worth taking a look at the cards.
Strategic Thinking
Given the day-to-day pressures of running a library service, we heard from those in the sector that dedicating time to strategic thinking and planning is challenging yet more important than ever. Through the Development Programme strategy work- shop, we wanted to inspire libraries staff about the possibilities, but also offer some practical tools. Thinking strategically was
46 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Strategy workshop.
both about maximising the potential of Engaging Libraries projects and thinking about how they connect to broader library service agendas and beyond. To kick off the workshop, participants heard a keynote speech from Albert Tucker, a trustee at the Carnegie UK Trust and founder of several social enterprises includ- ing Divine chocolate and Cafedirect. Albert intentionally gave a broader perspective on being strategic. He drew on his experi- ence to encourage participants to have “big audacious goals” and called on them to be crystal clear on their purpose. In terms of goals, he pointed to the necessity of iden- tifying the crossover between a ‘need’ and the abundance that libraries have to offer provides the opportunity to dream big, and have a vision for making the world better in some way. This could be something very ambitious and not necessarily achievable
in full, but having the vision sets the path and provides an overall focus for a project or whole service. In relation to purpose, he reminded participants that purpose makes a huge difference to strategy: whether one’s purpose is to sell coffee to make more money or to help people leads to very different strategies. Projects also heard from a panel of libraries experts whose strategic think- ing has had major impact. Ciara Eastell, Independent Consultant, led Devon Libraries through a major programme of modernisation and establishing Libraries Unlimited as a public service mutual. Anthony Hopkins is Head of Library, Heritage and Adult Education Services for the London Borough of Merton, which is renowned for having one of the most cost-efficient library services in London whilst achieving some of the highest
Fife Cultural Trust – Pause not Full Stop March 2020
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