ABSTRACT
Organizations take many pathways as they converge around issues, begin to hybridize, and then create collaborative governance frameworks—no two complex systems emerge, evolve, and mature in a predictable or identical manner. Designing collaborative governance is more of a process of guiding or influencing how the hybrid organization comes together, rather than dictating its framework. Organization types and governance styles are closely linked with the three governance styles that are aligned with public, private, and non-profit organizations. Tools of convergence are the methods meta-governance uses to create a collective identity for the collaboration. As the organization brings collaborators aboard, it naturally becomes a network-lead governance model, where a single organization with a vested interest manages and facilitates the collaboration. A collaborative governance framework should not only provide the means to communicate to the collaboration on “how it is done”; it should enable suggestions, edits, amendments, and other changes as actors come and go and conditions change.
