Around the world NGos, community-based organizations, international agencies, governments, universities, and donors are discovering an inescapable lesson. The fight against poverty and environmental decline requires new forms of cooperation or partnerships in which diverse constituenciesjoin forces to meet enormous challenges that none of them can accomplish alone.

The difficulty in forging partnerships between Northern and Southern NGOs built upon mutual respect and shared goals can scarcely be underestimated. Yet, neither can its potential importance. Everywhere partnerships bet~veen international and local organizations are on the rise the question is how to make them work in the most mutually developmental and effective ways.

As a step toward addressing this question, 46 representatives from a number of Northern and Southern NGos assembled in Harare, Zimbabwe, in a workshop setting jointly sponsored by the GEM Initiative and Save the Children. The purpose ofthe workshop was to provide a forum to share experiences and techniques of partnering through experience-based dialogue. The approach centered around an Appreciative Inquiry into the dynamics of partnership in order to discover:

. Common definitions of partnership

. Tools for building partnerships

. Best practices relating to partnership

. Plans for building future partnerships

Having successfully used Appreciative inquiry in other GEM programs focusing on the factors that give life to"organizations," GEM staff believed that a similar model but one inquiring into what gives life to "partnership"- would uncover new learnings in this domain. To this end, a process previously used in GEM's organizational Excellence program was adapted for use in partnerships and became the 4-D Model:
Discovery, Dream, Design, Delivery

At the core of this process is the inquiry beginning and ending with valuing that which gives life to partnerships. During this phase ofthe cycle, the search focuses on what the partnership has done well in the past and is doing well in the present.

The primary task of the Discovery phase is to appreciate the best of "what is" by focusing on peak moments in the life of a partnership- when people have experienced the partnership relationship as most alive and effective. Seeking to understand the unique factors (e.g., leadership, structures, values, planning methods, etc.) that made the peak moments possible allows people to let go of points of difficulty in the partnership and focus on and learn from those factors that bring them together.

In the Discovery phase people share stories of exceptional accomplishments, discuss lifegiving factors of their partnership, and highlight the aspects of the partnership's history that they value and want to preserve in the future. Questions in the inquiry draw out stories that demonstrate characteristics of really good partnerships, the kinds of best qualities and skills people have that contribute to good partnership, stages in the development of partnership re rations, reasons for forming partnerships and alliances, and ways in which partners can learn together.

Here are some ofthe key questions that guide the Appreciative Inquiry into Partnership during the Discovery phase:

1. Have you ever been part of a really good partnership?
over the years you and your organization have been in many partnership relationships. As you reflect back over all those experiences, there have been ups and downs, high points and low points, or peaks and valleys as far as the partnership experience was concerned. For the moment focus on a high point-a time you felt you were involved in a really "good" partnership, a time that stands out as significant, meaningful, mutually empowering, or particularly effective in terms of results achieved. Share the story of this good partnership: what made it a good partnership? How were you involved? How did it operate? What were the key learnings?

2. What are the best qualities and skills available to a partnership?
We all have different qualities and skills we bring to any new partnership. Let's reflect on those qualities and skills from different levels:

Yourself. Without being too humble, what is it that you value most about yourself as it relates to thingsyou briny to building high-quality partnerships?

Your society or culture. Every society or culture has its own unique qualities, beliefs, traditions, or capabilities that prepare us for building good partnership relations. What two or three things about your culture or society are you most proud about in relation to qualities that might enhance or help build good partnerships? Can you share a story about your culture that illustrates its best partnership qualities?

Your organization. What, currently, are your organization's best practices, skills, values, methods, or traditions that make it ready to be a good partner?

3. What stages of development has your current partnership passed through?
Think about a current partnership relationship between your organization and another. obviously, relationships change overtime. What, in your view, were the stages of development in the partnership? If you thought about the partnership like a play-with act one, act two, act three, and so on-what was the key theme or storyline for each act? What were the challenges that your organization had to deal with in building a higher-quality partnership? How did you successfully deal with the challenges? What are the key lessons?

4. Why build organizational partnerships?
From your organization's perspective, why go to all thetrouble of buildingpartnershipswith other organizations? Why not just operate alone? What, in ideal terms, are the benefits and outcomes of form ing good partnerships?

5. What is the core "life-giving" factor of good partnership?
As you think about what it takes to build high quality partnerships, especially across organizations from different cultures, what is the core "life giving" factor without which partnership would not be possible?

6. What do you look for in a potential partner?
What are your organizational criteria for entering a partnership relationship with another organization or group? What are the key questions you would ask a new potential partner?

7. How do we learn from each other?
Every good partnership yields organizational learning to both parties. In your experience what are the primary barriers and obstacles to both organizations learning from each other? More importantly, how have those barriers been overcome in your partnership experience? How does your organization approach the teaching/learning process? How do you learn from each other?

When Discovery takes place in a workshop setting, pairs form and take turns interviewing each other. When those interviews are completed, each pair forms a group with two or three other pairs, and a few ofthe richest stories are shared with the larger group. From these stories this group then focuses on preparing a group list of "best practices" for forming partnerships. In the Discovery phase, partner teams come to know those moments in their partnership's history that they most value and want to preserve for the future.

The next phase in the Partnership 4-D Model is the Dream phase. During this phase partners are challenged to use the stories, data, and best practices about partnership as a launching pad for boldly envisioning what the partnership might become. What is the partnership calling for?

This phase involves challenging the status quo by envisioning more valued and vital futures. The task here is to build a vision ofthe impact the partnership has the potential to achieve. Grounded in the stories uncovered during the earlier inquiry, partners are equipped to fashion a future relationship well beyond the status quo. They are encouraged to be bold and expansive and leave behind any current constraints or obstacles.

During this phase partner teams imagine what impact the partnership will have in their village, in their country, in the world. By so doing they construct a positive image of their shared future. They are encouraged to make bold statements as if they had already been achieved. Although bold and provocative, this future vision, is grounded in examples from the partnership's positive past. The possibility propositions are compelling precisely because they are based on extraordinary moments in the partnership`s history. People are now reedy to move on to the next phase, where they will work together to craft real ity from their dreams.

During the Design phase the partner teams move on from the image they have constructed together oftheir desired future relationship and begin to design a "social architecture" to support their shared dreams. This involves planning more concretely how their partnership and their supporting organizations need to change and be re-designed to more effectively and fully realize their shared vision. Next, they identify what steps need to be taken to realize their shared vision for the partnership. In so doing, they are creating a social architecture which encompasses policies, procedures, structures and relationships that support joint actions.

The last phase ofthe 4-D cycle, the Delivery phase, introduces the concept of a "learning organization" in which partners are committed to continuous learning, adjustment, and innovation in support oftheir shared vision. The partnership seeks to become its own learning organization, one in which the partners continually expand their capacity to envision and create the results they truly desire; one in which new and empowering forms of joint action are designed; and one in which collective aspiration is set free and all members of the partnership are continually evaluating the work they are doing and learning how to learn together. The key to sustaining the momentum fueled by the shared positive image ofthe partnership's future is to build an "appreciative eye" into all the ways of working together .

The mere act of working through the phases ofthe 4-D model-from Discovery to Dream to Design and on to Delivery-leads the partners together on a positive journey which celebrates their past successes, creates a joint vision oftheir future impact, and rebuilds their day-to-day actions in alignment with their mutual discoveries. Having once embarked along this journey, the partnership will be able to revisit the phases whenever necessary, keeping an appreciative eye on the challenges ahead.