Guest post by Tessie Guillermo, president and CEO, of ZeroDivide

Today I began my very first Independent Sector conference experience, by attending the Monday morning plenary, "Conversation with a Sector Leader", featuring Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President Risa Lavizzo-Mourey being interviewed by Stephanie Strom from the New York Times. In social sector circles, RWJF is considered one of the"heavies," so having Risa open the first full day was a good tone setting move. Stephanie suggested to Risa that she might be in for a "grilling" but the conversation was more collegial than hard-nosed.

Many questions were thrown to Risa, but I found the first question and her answer the most compelling. Stephanie asked about how philanthropy has changed since Risa came to RWJF. Rsa answered by suggesting that philanthropy has become more strategic and is seeking more true partnerships. She gave an example of their funded partnership between AARP and the Chamber of Commerce in order to move healthcare reform policy. This was a good example, given the resulting health reform legislation, but the full extent of its benefits have yet to be determined given the legal morass the ACA is caught up in to date.

I believe partnerships are key to strategic success in the sector, but philanthropy has little practice with how to do this effectively.  Incentives for leveraging the expertise, resources and experience of partners are often unclear. This often leaves the "beneficiaries" of the partnership, i.e., the clients of stakeholders in the sector, without a clue as to the true result. In business, partnerships are often joint ventures: the terms of the JV are clearly spelled out, the "win-win" is quantified and the results are evidenced either successfully or not in the marketplace. In the independent sector, there is so far no true equivalent to this measurement of benefit. As much as I agree with Risa, I believe there is a rigor and discipline that philanthropy must assign to partnerships in order to make them more valuable for the future. Given RWJF's reputation around data and measurement, I believe they can be one of the leaders in this area.

Risa's answer to another question, about her leaderrship style, was also food for thought. She referred to the notion of a shepard guiding her flock, saying that it was important to let those who want to move ahead do so, so that others can follow in their wake. She used RWJF's tobacco work as an example, and credited state's attorneys general, national health organizations and non-profits for laying the groundwork for anti-tobacco legislation and groundbreaking tobacco use prevention strategies. RWJF was able to follow on this work by bringing some organization, visibility and resources to the work and making it more unified and impactful. Good leadership doesn't always mean leading the charge. That works for me.