Review of Beyond Collaboration Overload

WE might think of rich communication between workers, transparent information sharing, and non-hierarchical decision-making as being attributes of high-performing organizations.

In the new book Beyond Collaboration Overload, Rob Cross argues that in excess all of those things contribute to burnout and low performance. “We endure a volume, diversity, and velocity of collaborations that place an unprecedented tax on our time and brains,” writes Cross, a management professor at Babson College.

He rightly points out that how many of us actually spend our work days doesn’t align with what we’d say are our professional or personal priorities. We attend meetings we don’t really need to be in, we devote hours to unnecessarily complicated email exchanges, we meddle in decisions that would be better made without our involvement, we practice flavors of “servant leadership” that strip us of any proactive capacity.

Cross contends that 90% of leaders suffer collaboration overload, and that it’s possible to perform better, be happier, and reclaim 18% to 24% of our work time by fixing this problem. His remedy is what he calls “essential collaboration,” which “encompasses the importance of working together as well as the need to reduce collaboration to its essentials.”

Beyond Collaboration Overload, whose findings are rooted in Cross’s work as a researcher and consultant, offers timely cautions about overdoing some of the connection and communication that are hallmarks of modern workplaces and thought-provoking analysis of what high-performing leaders do differently from the rest of us.

Cross says we over-collaborate because:

We want to help others.

We get a sense of fulfillment from accomplishment when we intervene in projects.

We like being influential or recognized for our expertise.

We fear being labeled a poor performer or colleagues.

We need to feel on top of all of the details, and in control.

We want closure, and are uncomfortable with ambiguity.

We fear missing out.

He suggests that we can address over-collaboration and reclaim our time by:

Addressing those identity and fear triggers that lead us to do so. “Develop clarity on your North star objectives, focusing on what you truly care about—not society’s definition of success as a certain role or promotion or way of spending your time.”

Establishing roles and structure that reflects priorities. He recommends blocking off time in your calendar for more-reflective work and stripping away meetings that don’t align with your objectives. Cross also suggests delegating work to less-overloaded people, and shaping expectations of others to make clear when they don’t need to come to you for approval or register face time.

Resetting communications and workflow norms. Cross argues for cutting time allotted for meetings in half (though acknowledges meetings are sometimes better longer.) He suggests tactics for limiting time consumed by email, such as establishing maximum lengths, using bullet points rather than full-text paragraphs, removing unnecessary ccs, and discouraging replies.

Once we’ve reclaimed time and addressed over-collaboration, we create space to really thrive in our work and lives, investing in our performance and well-being. Cross describes this as an infinite loop: “If you are more efficient, you are better able to tap networks for performance and well-being. And if you are accomplishing things of greater substance and showing up at work differently, you are better able to push back on collaboration overload.”

Cross cites several main attributes of the highest-performing leaders:

They mobilize a broad network of connections in their work. This is seemingly in conflict with the idea that we’re collaborating too much. “Often, bigger networks just provide more ways to get overloaded with collaboration,” Cross acknowledges. But he says that the highest-performing individuals tap diverse networks—bridging different expertise, locations, functions, cultures, points of view—early on in medium-horizon projects, which are happening now and unfold over a few months. They strategically solicit the views of other people to fill gaps in their knowledge, gain perspective, and serendipitously break out of narrow ideas.

They energize people, which results in attracting opportunities and talent. They also pursue personal connections and outside interests that increase their physical and mental wellbeing.

 

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