Helping clients build a bridge over troubled waters

Four years ago, Jane was approached by a major telecommunications company and asked to facilitate some teambuilding between them and an international children’s charity.

The two organisations were partners in a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project to provide support for youth organisations around the world. The relationship, which had been in place for several years, had deteriorated to the point of imminent collapse.

Whilst carrying out some initial inquiry, Jane realised that something more fundamental and transformational was needed in order to help the partners continue to work together.

There was clear commitment and a desire from both sides of the partnership to “make it work.” However, there was also a background of considerable organisational change in both organisations. The roles and responsibilities between the partnership members had become blurred as the programme grew in size and influence and this contributed to a loss of trust between the programme partners and a near total breakdown in communication.
Significantly, there was unacknowledged anxiety over the financial power the corporate partner wielded in the relationship, and how this impacted on the authority of the charity partner to hold firm to its principles and expertise.

Over a period of 18 months Consultancy Works worked with the programme members together to clarify their vision, roles and responsibilities of the programme they had jointly embarked upon.
Work with the corporate partner enabled them to appreciate how daunting their involvement could feel for a smaller organisation that may have significantly different values. We helped them devise a plan for maintaining their need for governance while becoming aware of the effect of that governance (combined with their economic power) and how this could distort and affect partner relationships.

Our work with the charity helped them sustain and maintain their authority in their field in the face of pressures of working as a smaller organisation.
With both partners, we worked on how to mitigate the effects of working across the globe in a multi-national, multi-organisational team.

Since our involvement, the partners have rebuilt the trust necessary to carry on the partnership. The programme they jointly run goes from strength to strength, and has expanded into 25 countries.

Jane says “The relationships between partners in corporate social responsibility projects can be very complex and difficult. Issues around money, power, authority and values can often be difficult to talk about safely and can be overlooked when coming together initially. Once you get going, it can be hard to have those conversations later on – especially if you have got into difficulties with one another. We are going to Barcelona to share our story of helping two organisations work together more effectively to form really resilient CSR partnerships.“