Partnerships increasingly play a major role in determining and implementing major policy drives in localities. Understanding how they may provide value is therefore essential to understanding modern governance principles. This article describes action research aiming to develop a conceptualization of factors inherent in collaborative forms and, hence, about their practicality as governance tools. Different interpretations of what collaborative governance is intended to achieve are first reviewed. Two areas that seriously affect the ability of collaborations to deliver their potential, structural complexity and diversity are then reviewed. The article concludes by considering what is needed to make collaborative governance work.