52 Weeks of Plan, Do, Track - Week 18: Projects – Partnerships (RACSI)

Week 18 Focus – Projects – Partnerships (RACSI)
Focus Question: We usually don’t operate in isolation. Who do you want to/need to liaise with to ensure successful projects and activities?

​Description
Partnerships are essential for coaches, virtual professionals and others. For most of us, we interface regularly with external partners and stakeholders, who are often located in some distance away from us.

As virtual and service-based businesses, we may create a wide variety of partnerships in our work. We don’t always do it alone. As soon as we expand our work to others, it can be useful to think about what partnerships look like.

From co-coaching, to Joint Ventures, bringing on sub-contractors to co-designing programs. What can partnerships look like for you?

Given that we are interfacing with different stakeholders around projects at any given time, it can be useful to think about how different stakeholders need to be updated and “kept in the loop”. 

Research/Story/Six Questions
Who are the partners you want to keep in the loop? What are the key tasks and responsibilities?

One of the more common frameworks for stakeholder engagement is the RACSI. RACSI stands for:
R – Responsible
A – Accountable
C – Consulted
S - Support
I – Informed.
Let’s look at each one in turn.
Responsible = person or role responsible for actually doing or completing the item. Who needs to do the work? This might be the team leader who has to gather the expense information in the new format and submit it.
Accountable = The person who is accountable is usually the person responsible for undertaking the task. Who has ownership of this? Typically, the "responsible one" is accountable to this person.   The accountable person might be the General Manager, the Team Leader's boss.
Consult = the person or role whose subject matter expertise is required in order to complete the item. Consulted - Who needs to be involved and asked for input? Those consulted may involve other team leaders who have gone through the change, and team members.
Support = Who needs to support the work? What type of support is required?
Inform = the person or role that needs to be kept informed of the status of item completion Who needs to be told about the change or informed along the way? Individuals who are not part of teams may need to be informed so they know what changes are happening.

The value of reflecting on a RACSI for each project is that it helps you consider who you want to involve and keep in the loop. Projects sometimes are not successful when they have not engaged different players or stakeholders appropriately.

Activity
Consider one of your upcoming initiatives/ programs/projects. Who are the key stakeholders? Who is responsible? Who needs to support? Who needs to be consulted? Who needs to be informed?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Any time we bring shareholders on or work closely with a community, or membership site, it can be important to be focusing on the RACSI, as we consider how to communicate our messages.

Great partnerships are usually co-designed with intentionality. To help guide you through these conversations, I share a variety of questions to consider at different times of the partnership journey – pre-design, during design, during implementation and after the project.

Be sure to also download the Co-Facilitation Chapter. This link is found on page 93 of PlanDoTrack and page 89 of the Coaching Business Builder.
​
Leverage the tools including the Partnership Questions on Pages 93 and 94 of the PlanDoTrack or pages 89 and 90 of the Coaching Business Builder.
 
Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

---

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram