For facilitators
These accounts allow us to hear the different viewpoints - sometimes quite at variance from each other - of people working on the same project. Having access to these different perspectives helps us to understand some of the dynamics within partnership working.
One way of working with these is to choose a case study, and to divide participants into groups to match the number of stories /people in the case study: i.e. if there are stories from 5 people in the partnership, have groups of 5.
Each group member is given one person’s story to read in advance, as well as the Introduction to the case study, which all should read.
When the group meet, the brief is:
To share their understanding of the context for the case
Each to give a brief account of the perspective of ‘their’ story
Then to consider all the stories they have heard, and discuss the similarities and differences in how the different partners saw/experienced the situation
To notice themes underlying these similar and different perspectives and experiences
If you are working with more than one group, at this point, you can ask the groups to share their ideas on this last point: the themes underlying similar and different perspectives of the partnership in this case study
Only when you have fully explored issues and themes arising from the partnership in the case, it can be useful to ask participants if any of these themes are familiar to them from their own experience of partnerships. It is important to allow time to absorb the material in the case before jumping to conclusions based on participants’ own experience.
At the end, you may want to point to the ‘Researchers’ commentaries’ on the case’ on the website, so that the participants can compare their own themes and ideas with those of the researchers.
For managers
Managers have found these case studies useful for working with their own teams involved in partnerships, or better, to work with cross-agency teams. Team members can appreciate the depth of different viewpoints using material which is outside what can be sensitive and difficult-to-access differences within their own cross-agency team. The same method is used.
