Jumping in the Deep End

So once you have that alignment with people, you choose to have strategic partnerships with, how do you then leverage those relationships to drive growth and expand your organization's influence?

When you work through that piece and then you identify the purpose of the partnership or venture and on the front end, you should identify the goals that you want to have. And I think probably it's always wise to know that you may have to make some mid-course adjustments as you learn how to work together. But identify the goals and then that's where you leverage each other's capabilities. So that upfront work on knowing who's got what strengths and who may be not be as strong as the other partner, that's when that execution takes place. And it doesn't mean that somebody who's a little bit stronger with one component can't learn from the other one in the same area. That happens all the time. But play to each other's strengths to achieve the goals that you've set up for. And again, then be agile in adjusting the work to either achieve the goals or to have an honest understanding of did we bite off too much at the front end. And do we need to step back?

Did you have any of those instances when you were running Goodwill where you went into a partnership with just that, well, oh, maybe we bit off too much, or maybe we need to do a course correction here.

We did. We had some amazing partnerships that worked really well. Some more brand oriented and some were more operational. And so we would attempt some marketing relationships that were brand building to create clothing drives. And even though they had some splash term, they didn't necessarily, they weren't necessarily the great venues for the donation drives and we'd have to adjust. And of course, correct as we're going along. So that was probably looking at the strengths and weaknesses on the front end maybe a little hopeful thinking in some of that.