Partnerships: one smells sweet...the other doesn't

Topics: partnership stories, CVS, waste

Two interesting items caught my eye today. One is an initiative in Cornwall, the other an inspection in Oxfordshire.

The secret language of posies

In Cornwall, they've recently held an event to celebrate and strengthen the realtionship between the public and voluntary sectors. This year's theme was the "language of flowers".

A dictionary of flower meanings was displayed on posters around the room, and guests were invited to bunch locally grown flowers using the Victorian 'Language of Flowers' to create coded messages, all reflecting thoughts on what constitutes or would help promote a positive working relationship. For example, one guest chose Forsythia, Garlic and Oak-leaved Geranium to create a message which meant 'anticipation and courage...leading to...true friendship'.... Yet another selected Stephanotis, Daffodil, Bluebell and Alstroemeria which when decoded means 'happiness in marriage, respect, constancy and friendship'.



Daffs and bluebells symbolise respect and constancy in partnership

It's not rubbish, it's fair.

Meanwhile in Oxfordshire, the Audit Commission has deemed the Oxfordshire waste partnership a "Fair Service, with uncertain prospects for improvement"

It's not normally my wont to trash partnerships in this blog, and that's not what I'm attempting to do. I think the summary findings are interesting:

Oxfordshire Waste Partnership has not delivered on key aims such as integrating waste collection and disposal or improving value for money, although the county compares well on recycling, composting and waste levels. Its progress to address Oxfordshire's waste issues has noticeably improved. But the councils still need to make difficult decisions before an effective new strategy is in place.

The Commission acknowledges that improvements have been made - and from a quick glance the service doesn't seem that bad. Some of the main criticisms from the summary of the inspection report seem to be that the partneship may not be really working as a partnership and that improvements seem to be down to the contributions of individual partners. I haven't looked at this in depth, but this does seem to illustrate some of the difficulties of partnerships - that maybe this partnership isn't as strong as the constituent councils.

Synergy
I thought these two stories were an interesting contrast - one smelling sweet, the other not, but both illustrating the importance of working together to come up with something that's greater than the sum of its parts. In the PM Partner project we'll be looking at adding value by working together in a few weeks, and these examples will provide some interesting food for thought.

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