How can you take advantage of diversity trends in partnerships?

1 Diversify your partners

One way to leverage diversity is to seek out partners who complement your strengths and fill your gaps. This can help you access new markets, audiences, resources, and ideas. Look for partners who share your vision and values, but also bring different skills, networks, and insights. For example, you can partner with a local NGO to support a social cause, or with a tech company to enhance your digital capabilities.

2 Diversify your teams

Another way to benefit from diversity is to build diverse teams within your partnership. This can foster creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. Ensure that your teams reflect the diversity of your partners, customers, and communities. This can help you understand their needs, preferences, and expectations better. For example, you can include people from different departments, functions, roles, and backgrounds in your project teams.

3 Diversify your communication

A third way to harness diversity is to communicate effectively across different cultures, languages, and channels. This can improve your trust, rapport, and engagement with your partners and stakeholders. Use clear, respectful, and inclusive language and avoid jargon, slang, and stereotypes. Adapt your communication style and medium to suit your audience and purpose. For example, you can use video calls, emails, social media, or face-to-face meetings depending on the situation.

4 Diversify your learning

A fourth way to capitalize on diversity is to learn from your partners and their experiences. This can help you grow your knowledge, skills, and competencies. Seek feedback, advice, and best practices from your partners and share your own. Be open-minded, curious, and humble. Learn from your successes and failures and celebrate your achievements together. For example, you can create a shared platform, newsletter, or podcast to exchange information and insights.

5 Diversify your impact

A fifth way to maximize diversity is to measure and communicate your impact on different dimensions. This can help you demonstrate your value, credibility, and accountability to your partners and stakeholders. Define your goals, indicators, and metrics that reflect your diverse outcomes and outputs. Collect, analyze, and report data that shows your social, environmental, and economic impact. For example, you can use surveys, stories, infographics, or case studies to showcase your results.

6 Diversify your opportunities

A sixth way to exploit diversity is to explore new opportunities for your partnership. This can help you expand your scope, scale, and sustainability. Identify emerging trends, needs, and challenges that affect your partners and stakeholders. Look for gaps, niches, and synergies that you can address together. Innovate, experiment, and adapt to changing conditions. For example, you can launch a new product, service, or campaign with your partners or invite new partners to join your collaboration.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?