Principles of Open Partnerships

It must be "open" in the sense of being:

• inclusive: The barriers to entry are few, low, and fair. An open setting invites participation, it does not try to restrict it. The door stands open and the threshold is low. More is merrier!

• voluntary: No one should be forced to participate, if the value is not obvious to them. Ideally, there should be so much value being created that people will feel foolish to leave. But the door stands open in both directions, and the threshold is no higher going out than it was coming in.

• open to change: New things can come through the door that may shake things up. The system must give people a means to embrace change when it is required, just as it enables them to fight for stability. Both strategies must be able to exist side by side. Ideally, people adapt to this openness by using it as a pump for innovation and change, making innovation and change its life force.

• able to grow freely to whatever size and scope is possible and necessary to maintain openness: If the walls are fixed, the room will rapidly get crowded. The open door would do no one on the outside any good because they can't squeeze in. The fight for elbow room on the inside would get fierce and ugly. Eventually, the flow of people would be outward rather than inward. But if the walls expand as more people arrive, then the only limit is the number of people that find value in participating and how inventive those people can be in finding new ways to create value that can expand the room even further.

However, it must also be a "partnership" in the sense of being:

• defined: The relationships among the participants must be formally agreed upon. The purpose of the partnership needs also to be defined, including those things that will not be violated in pursuit of goals.

• among fundamental equals: All participants have the same basic rights and responsibilities that cannot be arbitrarily altered or diminished. One participant should not have an intrinsic advantage over another within the organization. However, this doesn't mean that everyone reaps the same rewards, only that the organization can't pick sides unless, of course, a more general principle is at stake.

• bounded: Entry (or exit) is a conscious choice. At any point in time, you can tell who is "inside" and who is "outside" of the organization.

• enforceable: No one trusts a system that can't make and enforce its own rules. Ideally, the agreements should be largely self-enforcing.

• goal oriented: people are participating in order to get something done that couldn't be achieved independently or that can be much more successfully achieved in concert with others.