Beyond Collaboration Overload

<p><b>Named the Best Management Book of 2021 by <i>strategy+business</i></b></p><p><b>Named one of "this month's top titles" in the <i>Financial Times</i> in September 2021</b></p><p><b>Named to the longlist for the 2021 Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award in the Management & Culture category</b></p><p><b>A plan for conquering collaborative overload to drive performance and innovation, reduce burnout, and enhance well-being.</b></p><p>Most organizations have created always-on work contexts that are burning people out and hurting performance rather than delivering productivity, innovation and engagement. Collaborative work consumes 85% of employees' time and is drifting earlier into the morning, later into the night, and deeper into the weekend.</p><p>The dilemma is that <b>we all need to collaborate more</b> to create effective organizations and vibrant careers for ourselves. <b>But conventional wisdom on teamwork and collaboration has created too much of the wrong kind of collaboration, which hurts our performance, health and overall well-being</b>.</p><p>In <i>Beyond Collaboration Overload</i>, Babson professor Rob Cross solves this paradox by showing how top performers who thrive at work collaborate in a more purposeful way that makes them <b>18-24% more efficient</b> than their peers. <b>Good collaborators are distinguished by the efficiency and intentionality of their collaboration—not the size of their network or the length of their workday</b>.</p><p>Through landmark research with more than 300 organizations, in-depth stories, and tools, <i>Beyond Collaboration Overload</i> will coach you to reclaim close to a day a week when you:</p><ul><li><b>Identify and challenge beliefs</b> that lead you to collaborate too quickly</li><li><b>Impose structure</b> in your work to prevent unproductive collaboration</li><li><b>Alter behaviors</b> to create more efficient collaboration</li></ul><p></p><p>It then outlines how successful people invest this reclaimed time to:</p><ul><li><b>Cultivate a broad network</b>—not a big one—for innovation and scale</li><li><b>Energize others</b>—a strong predictor of high performance</li><li><b>Connect with others</b> to reduce micro-stressors and <i>enhance physical and mental well-being</i></li></ul><p></p><p>Cross' framework provides relief from the definitive problem of our age—dysfunctional collaboration at the expense of our performance, health and overall well-being.</p>