Undertaking regular ‘health checks’ of a partnership helps to ensure that it is running as efficiently and effectively as possible, that the relationship among partners remains strong, and that the partnership is able to fully deliver its ‘Collaborative Advantage’ to create maximum value for all. It also allows arising issues, challenges and tensions to be brought up in a non-threatening way and discussed by partners before they become a crisis for the project or damage relationships.
Health checks should be conducted regularly throughout the life of the partnership and become part of the culture of collaboration. TPI’s health check tool supports partners to examine the degree to which each of the Building Blocks of effective partnerships is in place, and then take action.
It can be used quite informally and often, to check in among partners and keep an already well-functioning partnership well optimized. Or it could be used more formally, preferably with the support of a trusted, neutral facilitator, to systematically identify (sometimes quite sensitive) issues which would then be worked through together.
TPI provides a range of health check services, from one-off health checks based on a survey and a workshop, through supporting partnerships work through challenging issues, to building health checks systems into the partnership operations and culture.