Working in Partnership: Benefits and Challenges

10 June 2009

Carolyn Royston

What this talk will cover

• This talk is based on my recent experience with NMOLP:– Benefits of working in partnership– Working with the right partners– Understanding your partnership – gaining commitment

and working with constraints– Some lessons learnt from NMOLP

About me

• Currently Head of New Media, IWM• Project manager NMOLP until March 09• NMOLP was first time I had worked in the public

sector• Previously Head of e-Learning in a UK new media

agency

Partnership working

Benefits of working in partnership

• Potential to add value and extend your existing offer

• Opportunities for shared knowledge and skills

• Can provide shared content and technology platform

• Provide new ways of working• Springboard to genuine

partnership working

However, to make it work

Be aware of the following:• Need buy-in from senior management• Project needs clear benefits and value

for all involved• Clarity about what project will deliver

(and what it won’t do)• Capability and capacity clearly identified• Agreement on how you will work

together• Legacy strategy and sustainability issues

built into project plan

Different types of partners

• It doesn’t always have to be other museums or galleries

• Work out what sort of organisation(s) will add value and fit with your wider strategic aims

• Don’t rule out commercial partners or organisations outside your sector

Variety of approaches

• Be creative with your partnership and ways of working

• Key Question: How can you get the most out of the partners and partnership?– Phased approach– Different contributions as part of a whole– Smaller partnerships out of the larger partnership

NMOLP

Nine national museums

• British Museum• Imperial War Museum• Natural History Museum• National Portrait Gallery• Royal Armouries• Sir John Soane’s Museum• Tate• Victoria and Albert Museum• Wallace Collection

NMOLP – what is it?

• Large-scale UK digital learning project• Audiences are students, teachers & lifelong learners• First time national museums have worked together

collaboratively on public facing project• 3 year project launched March ‘09• Funded by the Treasury, sponsored by DCMS

Funding Criteria

• ‘Invest to Save’ budget:– No new website or portal– No new digitisation or curatorial content– Must be sustainable for at least 3 years post-launch

Size of OrganisationsLarge Medium Small

British Museum IWM Sir John Soane

Natural History Museum NPG Wallace

Tate Royal Armouries

V&A

What have we delivered for our audiences?

• Resources for schools (WebQuests)• Resources for lifelong learners (Creative Spaces)• Linking together 9 national collections via a cross-

collection search• Resources that can be used & shared across all 9

national museums

This is what we made

• WebQuests• Creative Spaces

Managing NMOLP partnership

Issues when I started

• Project plan written and funding allocated• Partnership already determined by project funding• Technical solution promised but implementation not

scoped out• Content deliverables outlined but not fully defined

My approach

• Visited every partner for fact-finding• Discovered different expectations about what the

project would deliver for each partner:– Institutional– Departmental– Individuals

Key areas I focussed on• Developing collective aims and objectives for project

• Managing expectations from the start

– What this project will deliver and what it won’t deliver

• Establishing people’s commitment to the project

– Not just showing up at meetings – active participation

• Importance of deadlines to everyone

• Identifying the potential barriers to success for:

– Each institution

– Departments within institutions

– Individuals working on the project

• Legacy and sustainability

Why was this important?

• Partners needed to take responsibility for the project in their own institutions

• I couldn’t solve their institutional issues• But we could discuss those issues which:

– Enabled us in many cases to find collective solutions and offer support– Build relationships between partner representatives– Ownership of project brought more commitment from partners

Building commitment• Gaining commitment from people in the project:

– Assign different roles and responsibilities for people

– Different types of meetings

– Active involvement from partners

– Set realistic deadlines

– Acknowledge achievements along the way

– Be transparent about decisions

– PM is the leader of the project

Working with constraints

• Lots of constraints on this project:– Number of stakeholders and meetings– Different capabilities and capacities– Technical differences– Copyright restrictions– Brand conflicts– Marketing and PR conflicts– Sustainability issues

Working with constraints

• Try to anticipate as early as possible what the major issues might be

• Prioritise these issues and allocate adequate time and resource to deal with them

• Be decisive about ways forward – need agreement on how to tackle these issues

• Re-visit if necessary throughout lifecycle of project

Legacy

• Needs to be built into original project plan• Re-visited throughout project• Sustainability plan for technology• Sustainability plan for partnership

– How will the project continue to be managed? And who will do it?– How will decisions be made?– What happens after the evaluation?– How do you disseminate what you have learnt?– How does the project impact on future developments both within the

sector and outside?

Key lessons I learnt

• Partnerships require work – All the time!• Spending time on the partnership early on will benefit you

throughout the project• Engage your senior managers and build advocacy for project• Scope out the project and shape it to fit your partnership• Legacy and sustainability need to be discussed and agreed

from the start• A good project manager will lead your project but

implementation and delivery is a collective responsibility

Carolyn Roystoncroyston@iwm.org.uk