Have you got 5 minutes?

It feels like I have not got a single thing done this week.  The week has been dominated by the word 'partnerships' and the phrase 'have you got 5 minutes?' 

 

As someone heading up a consortium partnership working with the voluntary sector, good partnerships are central to everything but it seems that all of my time is taken with conversations....

 

I haven't been able to get through the zillion emails awaiting my attention or the various admin tasks and bits of paperwork that are part of the job.  I have worn my voice out this week with all the meetings, tweets, coffee catch-ups, pre-meetings, phone calls and even mini briefings MI5 style in various car-parks across Sandwell!

 

Some of the conversations have been tough.  You know, the ones where you have to say or announce something that 90% of the room isn't in agreement with but it has to happen anyway.  Some of the conversations reveal a reality check of how much work we have to do to improve in some areas.  And some of them reveal how much progress we have made and how we are changing the lives of children and families for the better.

 

I delivered an important presentation yesterday to a tough audience of our external partners, where I was facing a bit of a lion's den and somehow managed to come out with all of them on our side and fighting for us.  This was no mean feat.  I felt euphoric afterwards.

 

On the way home I realised that all the conversations had made a difference and had paved the way for that outcome.  So perhaps all that chatting just might actually be 'real work' after all..........who knew?

 

I guess partnerships are all about conversations because in the end that leads to relationships, and trust, and confidence and cooperation and all of the things you need to keep things working.

 

I need to remember that when the email inbox keeps filling up.  I'm going to keep chatting to our partners internal and external, in meetings, via Twitter, in car parks, in hallways and wherever, because I want to keep our partnerships working.

 

I'm also reflecting that some of the best companies that deliver exceptional customer and partner service are the ones that have got the chatting right.  There's a big lesson there.

 

Some other smaller lessons.....

 

'Have you got 5 minutes?' is usually always longer than 5 minutes.   

 

When conversing in car-parks, you should always keep an eye on the time and check the parking charges carefully.  

 

And if you don't, well Sandwell have a great online payment system for paying parking fines, just sayin.......