Sharing Good Practice
for the partnership to deliberate and
plan, and you have clear goals for the
partnership, but you do not have the
capacity to optimize the relationship.
Too often, schools jump head first
into a partnership and then find out
they do not have the resources to be
successful One important resource
that is overlooked is people. Is your
staff able to add value to a partnership
if they are overstretched?
Tactical
the importance of partnerships and
their effectiveness. MATs are designed
as formal partnerships, but the findings
suggest that MATs are not successfully
exploiting the collaborative advantage
to impact student outcomes. Effective
partnerships support better student
outcomes (Gilbert, 2017).
Partnerships are magical when they
are effective. In international school
environments where competition is
high for students, yet access to vital
resources may be limited, partnerships
are strategic means to leverage a
school’s capabilities.
protocols for reporting and outline
clear agreements for decision making.
Targets
Goals are critical for partnerships
to succeed. It is not required that
the goals are common, however, it
is important that these are agreed.
Targeting different goals in a
partnership is normal as long as that is
the agreement. When the targets are
not explicit, partnerships lose focus
and become unsustainable. It fizzles
out.
The UAE is instrumental in the growth
of international school worldwide,
second only to China. With so many
new schools emerging, numerous
opportunities for sharing resources,
capacity building and networks
abound. Some of the schools are
already in formal arrangements, as they
are part of an established organization,
others though, have to find partners
and cultivate relationships. Effective
partnerships provide great value, but
what might be the conditions that
sustain the value in a partnership?
How might partnerships be cultivated
and nurtured? Time
Trust You have identified the goals of the
partnership, you have created the time
Trust is critical to a partnership’s
success. Without trust, partnerships
disintegrate. Trust is fostered through
clear communication, transparent
practices and robust monitoring of
milestones. One tip is to establish the
Time needs to be allocated to grow
the partnership. Time is dispensed
through meetings and activities
directly connected to the partnership.
A partnership can easily fall apart if
meetings are not being held or the
time is not seen as creating value.
Regular monitoring meetings and
time allocated to the partnership for
work to happen is important.
Tools
A really effective partnership serves
a purpose. Schools regularly conduct
SWOC analyses, yet how might this
information drive a decision to be
part of a partnership? How might the
opportunities identified be capitalized
on with a strategic alliance? How
might the weaknesses be addressed
with a reciprocal, quid pro quo
partnership with mutual benefits
for both parties? How might the
challenges be overcome by forming a
union with other parties having similar
challenges?
In business parlance, the word
synergy is quite commonly bandied
about. Truly effective partnerships
are synergistic in nature, so they add
value to each of the parties involved.
The parties involved though, must
each be clear about why they are in
the partnership and advocate for their
interests. Failure to do so, can see a
relationship that was intended to be
symbiotic, evolve into a parasitic one.
Finally, school leaders should consider
whether their moral purpose and
values align and to what extent that
would affect their decision to partner.
For further reading:
Think piece
Partnerships
Megel has been an educator for over 24 years garnering leadership experience.
Currently, he is the assistant middle school principal at ABA, an IB world School
where he is responsible for the coordination of the MYP. Having worked in
Jamaica, United Kingdom, and Oman, while serving in a number of leadership
capacities, Megel brings real-world experiences to his talks focusing on job
satisfaction, ethics, brain-based learning and technology in education.
Class Time
Term 1 Sep - Dec 2019
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