How We Work
Our Approach
- Inclusive and Participatory: Enabling actors from government, business, civil society and communities to engage in dialogue and to work together; giving voice to stakeholders who are usually voiceless in determining systemic outcomes
- Systemic: Dealing with complexity, shifting systems, addressing interdependencies and root causes
- Open-Hearted: Working with empathy & understanding; drawing on intellectual, emotional, spiritual and relational intelligence
- Emergent: Creating conditions for learning and wisdom to emerge, being open to possibilities, inviting creativity, trial and error, and innovation
- Capabilities-Focused: Building on and leveraging assets; scaling what works, and stimulating new thinking
Inclusive Partnerships
Inclusive Partnerships bring together all sectors to engage in collective problem-solving: government, business, civil society organizations and communities. Those directly and adversely affected by the issue participate in the process and decision-making, and are not prescribed solutions by "experts."
Inclusive partnerships address critical development challenges where technical or narrow solutions have not worked or are not working at scale.
Innovative Process
The Multi-Stakeholder Partnership program uses innovative methods to facilitate collaborative action to solve complex development problems. One example is the Innovation Laboratory.
During Innovation Laboratories, we convene teams of 25-50 leaders from business, government, civil society and communities to engage in dialogue and problem solving. The team participates in a series of activities in three phases: Sensing, Reflecting and Acting.
More information on the Innovation Laboratory methodology is available in the paper The U-Process: A Social Technology for Addressing Highly Complex Challenges and in the book Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges by Otto Scharmer.
Grace's story illustrates the experience of a hypothetical Innovation Laboratory participant through this process. Read Grace's story.
Program Support Resources
Partnership projects are supported and enhanced by Synergos' complementary work in the following areas:
- Partnership Brokering and Services: Enabling prospective partners to connect and form partnerships; offering a range of consulting service to support partnerships.
- Networks and Convening: Fostering a community of organizations and individuals active in inclusive partnerships by providing opportunities, including peer learning, guided personal reflection and other methods.
- Capacity Building: Enabling and supporting local leaders and institutions to advance their skills in designing, convening, leading, facilitating and managing inclusive partnerships.
- Knowledge Creation and Sharing: Developing and making available practical knowledge resources on inclusive partnerships tools, guidebooks, case studies, methodologies, etc.
- Evaluation and Assessment: Continuously examining the efficacy of partnership approaches to ensure applications are appropriate and of highest value; distilling lessons learned within initiatives and across the program.
