Collaboration is Not a Weakness
Sometimes a memory, for the most part forgotten, comes back at a strange or interesting time, triggered by an outside and unusual influence. That happened to me this morning. I received an email with a hyperlink from a former supervisor and always mentor who wanted me to read a story regarding nonprofits working together. The story is about the Flint area and how several nonprofits are banding together to address the shortage of baby formula. I know why he sent it and it had nothing to do with babies.
Before going into consulting, I had the privilege of working at the academic medical center for the University of Nebraska. One of the efforts that the executive leadership was pushing, in the initial days of what would become known as population health, was a couple of specific areas of Omaha to have more accessible primary care. The genius of the plan, which I did not think of /dream up at all, was that instead of us building our own clinics in these two areas of Omaha, we’d be better off partnering with two other health nonprofits who already had credibility in these unique cultural communities. The realization was that we were the big bad wolf, so to speak, and that our clinical expertise would never overcome the local community’s hesitancy of us because of our size and scope.
The outcome was remarkable. In partnering with two smaller, reputable, local nonprofits to provide healthcare inside these two unique cultural communities, they received all the credit and attention while we were fulfilling our mission as the largest healthcare provider in the community----to provide better and stronger outreach regarding primary care. To get people to a doctor sooner so their illnesses wouldn’t get more serious. Better for the patient and better for us in terms of cost.
It also opened the door for me about the importance of collaboration. The nonprofit leaders in our community were tired of multiple nonprofits trying to do the same thing. They kept asking “why aren’t you all working together to maximize efficiencies and outcomes?” As legitimate question now as it was then.
The nonprofits working together to bring baby formula to families in need was a reminder of that. It’s also a good lesson for us all. The goal is not, at least it shouldn’t be, for our nonprofit to be the biggest and most influential. Our mission is to help people in our community and if collaboration makes that more feasible, in particular for the end-user, then that’s good for everybody.
