Free, Online Partnership Self-Assessment Tool Launched

NEW YORK CITY, August 1 - A new assessment tool that allows partnerships to identify their strengths and weaknesses has been created by the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at The New York Academy of Medicine. The tool is free and available immediately on the Internet at www.partnershiptool.net.

The easy-to-use "Partnership Self-Assessment Tool" can effectively pinpoint areas that need improvement and can help the partnership to function optimally so that it can make more of a difference in the community, and so that funders can get the most from their investment. Partnerships previously had no reliable and comprehensive way to assess the effectiveness of their collaboration process.

Tens of thousands of partnerships exist in the United States, and every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent sustaining them. Partnerships have huge potential to solve complex problems that affect health and well-being. But for a variety of reasons - internal conflict, loss of funding, ineffective leadership, inefficiency - they often dissolve before their goals are achieved. This is frustrating to partners who've invested their time, to communities hoping for positive change, and to funders who've supported the collaborations.

The tool was nationally launched in June by the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health, and works as follows. A partnership first registers on-line, and then each active partnership member fills out a short on-line questionnaire at the location and time of his choice. Because the survey is anonymous and takes only about 10 or 15 minutes to complete, partnership members are more likely to participate and give completely honest feedback about how well the group is working and where the problems are, said Roz Lasker, M.D., the Center's Director. The questionnaire explores many aspects of a partnership, such as how well it identifies creative ways to solve problems, how well it utilizes partners' resources and time, how effectively it minimizes barriers to participation, how effectively the leadership resolves internal conflicts and empowers members, and how comfortable members are with the decision-making process.

The computerized tool automatically collects and examines the answers. A thorough, objective analysis of the partnership is generated within 30 days. The comprehensive report can be printed and distributed to all partnership members. "The report is really a guide that can help the partnership address its weaknesses and build on its strengths," said sociologist Elisa Weiss, Ph.D., the Center's Associate Director. The tool builds on state-of-the-art technology developed by the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

The report suggests corrective actions and provides a non-threatening starting point for discussions about the partnership's functionality. The tool can be used over time to track the success of a partnership's efforts to improve the collaborative process. Partners who feel they can influence change within their partnership are more likely to stay motivated and committed to the group. This is critical, since collaboration is needed more than ever before to tackle important, complex problems concerning urban health and other issues.

"What was unique about the tool is it took a look at how the members feel about their role in the partnership," said Sheri Cohen, coordinator of the Chicago Partnership for Public Health, one of four partnerships in New York, West Virginia and Illinois that piloted the tool for the Academy. "It is exciting to get members' views on what we're doing right and what we need to improve upon."

Some partnerships perform notably well, Lasker said. But for every successful partnership there are many more that don't achieve or sustain their goals. People are generally eager to make a difference, but running a successful collaboration is extremely difficult. Partnership members often hail from vastly different backgrounds and perspectives, and some may not appreciate the value of combining their own knowledge with that of others in the community.

"There are enormous barriers," said Lasker, who is also Director of the Academy's Division of Public Health. "You have to respect what other people bring to the table."

Jackie Gailor, Public Health Director in Cortland County, N.Y., believes that using the tool will help ensure that all partnership members have a voice. Gailor is a member of another partnership that participated in the piloting of the tool. "The report gave a real indication of whether everyone had bought into the partnership process, or whether some of the personalities seem to have taken over the partnership, in some people's perception," she said.

The web-based tool uses carefully crafted questions based on findings from The National Study of Partnership Functioning, which was conducted by Weiss and completed in 2000. This study involved 815 people in 63 partnerships nationwide. Results showed that certain factors are related to partnerships' ability to achieve "synergy," defined as breakthroughs in thinking and action that are produced when a collaborative process successfully combines the complementary knowledge, skills, and resources of the participants. Partnerships with strong leadership, efficient and effective management, and sufficient non-financial resources tend to be more synergistic and therefore may be more likely to identify and solve problems in their communities.

Lasker, a native New Yorker who has been studying the dynamics of collaboration since 1995, said that a next phase of study will involve spending time with exemplary partnerships to learn from them. She then intends to create a model for successful partnerships that can be widely used as a roadmap.

The tool is made possible by funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The New York Academy of Medicine is a non-profit organization founded in 1847 that is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on disadvantaged urban populations. Visit the Academy online at www.nyam.org, and the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at www.cacsh.org.

Posted on August 2, 2002

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Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org

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