The Building Partnerships Map describes a series of phases which a partnership might involve. The map indicates what is needed in each phase to make such partnerships work, offering guidelines rather than rules. Each phase, as outlined on the worksheet, is important and should not be neglected if the partnership is to remain balanced and on course to achieve its goals.

To work well, partnerships need to be mutually beneficial to the partners involved. You can use the Building Partnerships Map to analyse at what phase of partnership you and your partner are, so that you can move through the next phases to build a strong partnership together.

Identify the stage that shows where you are at.
Identify the stage where you would like to be.
Use the template as a map to build a pathway towards that stage.
The mapped pathway gives an outline of the activities that need to be done in between.

The Learning Loop is a tool that helps you to define how the work you do now informs what you do next. It provides a high-level perspective on how implementing social change can be broken down into a gradual process of iterative cycles.

The worksheet, inspired by the Learning Plan from IDEO (2011), describes four different stages that your work might pass through in a cycle of continual improvement. Using this tool can help understand the different phases involved when trying to implement your ideas. By reflecting on the process involved, it can help you to understand what to do next. Learning is an ongoing cyclical process.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a specific project, organisation or even a whole sector. This analysis leads to a richer understanding of what the project or organisation can offer, the key weaknesses that need to be worked upon in order to succeed, and where to bring in external partners for assistance.

Completing a SWOT analysis involves identifying and mapping the internal and external factors that are assisting or hindering you in achieving your goal. The SWOT analysis provides a good framework for reviewing current strategies and directions, or even to test an idea while exploring solutions. It is particularly helpful to do a SWOT Analysis before the start of a project.

Setting up a Theory of Change is like making a roadmap that outlines the steps by which you plan to achieve your goal. It helps you define whether your work is contributing towards achieving the impact you envision, and if there is another way that you need to consider as well.

The Theory of Change tool not only helps to clearly articulate and connect your work to your bigger goal, it also allows you to spot potential risks in your plan by sharing the underlying assumptions in each step. In large organisations, when there may be several projects running simultaneously, the Theory of Change helps to map these different projects first and then consider how they link and relate to each other.

This tool can also aid in aligning team members to the larger end goal, and help them understand their role in achieving it.

The innovation flowchart gives a detailed overview of the various stages in an innovation process, listing the activities, requirements and goals for each stage. This includes an overview of the different people, skills, activities and finance that project or an organization might need in order to succeed. The structured overview this tool provides, helps review where you are in the process, and to organize the next steps in your work.