The application of the Systems Failure Method provided a useful framework within which a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) saw its own workings in a new way and gained insights that helped it improve its effectiveness. The System Failure Method potentially provides a conceptual framework within which partners can individually and collectively locate difficulties and understand their role and their internal and external relationships. Partners are able to see specific weaknesses in structures and processes irrespective of whether they are inherent in the way such partnerships have been created or they are linked to particular personalities and/or local circumstances. Generally, CDRPs share the strengths and the weaknesses of other partnerships. The Systems Failure Method provides a way of diagnosing the specific problems within an existing partnership and guiding its redesign. It also has the potential to assist those establishing new partnerships to integrate good practice and increases their future effectiveness. This article examines the difficulties experienced by a CDRP and how it used insight into the effectiveness of its structures and processes to make changes in its design and a brief explanation of the Systems Failures Method used to provide this insight. Table, figures, and references