Introduction

For the last several decades, public-sector organizations, nonprofits, community groups, and businesses have been trying to come together and jointly strategize in creative ways to tackle issues that are beyond each individual organization’s own boundary or borders. These difficult and complex problems include such wicked social problems and issues as homelessness, affordable housing, poverty, crime, unemployment, family violence, access to healthcare, public education, etc. It has become clear that working on these problems has not been very successful when individual agencies work primarily within a narrow or single focus, or within a single organization, or sometimes, even within a single sector. The core elements, causes, and structures of these complex problems go across organizational boundaries, and thus it is essential to develop new skills and strategies to work interdependently and collaboratively. As Chris Huxham and Siv Vangen (1996) noted more than two decades ago, cross-sector and multi-organizational collaboration are essential if there is to be any hope of alleviating these types of complex social problems. Changes in information technology have made it easier for organizations to work together and potentially, more cooperatively and more collaboratively, but even with new technologies, demonstrated progress has been hard to see (Hodge, Greve, & Biygautane, 2018). Funders have pressured, and at times even required as a condition of funding, that organizations work together in an effort to be more efficient and effective, but demonstrating positive outcomes has been challenging. Government mandates sometimes require agencies, through administration rules, operating procedures, and policies, to communicate better with each other, as well as with their constituents as they initiate problem-solving strategies; thus, it is clear that new skills are needed to implement these strategies successfully.