A cross-national analysis of the cases revealed four critical success factors that transcend national boundaries: leadership, trust, risk management, and communication and coordination. These were crucial in every setting regardless of service focus, level of government, or type of collaboration structure.

All of the projects were initiated by public sector leaders who shared a vision of better government. The leaders in each project were committed to developing working relationships within government and between government and private and nonprofit organizations. Commitment of top political leaders proved critical to initiation and sustainability of these efforts. Leadership also emerged within project teams, not only from project managers, but also from different individual participants who had the necessary skill or knowledge to lead specific tasks or respond to particular problems.