Today I talked to Dr. Heidi K. Gardner about her new book (co-authored with Ivan A. Matviak) Smarter Collaboration: A New Approach to Breaking Down Barriers and Transforming Work (HBR Press, 2022)

Diversity doesn’t mean much if a range of people are in the room but not really a part of the conversation taking place there. To counter that all-together too frequent shortcoming, today’s guest has focused on a variety of ways to achieve better collaboration where multiple viewpoints enrich the outcome. One way is to understand seven key dimensions of collaboration that focus on the personalities and behavioral tendencies in that room. Are people given to being risk seekers or spotters, for instance? Do they tend to be complex or concrete thinkers? And so on. Another way forward is to understand how the team will be evaluated and rewarded. When pay and promotions are weighted such that 40% is dependent on the outcome for customers, you tend to get a broader, more altruistic vantage point. Underlying it all in this conversation is how to overcome homophily: the basic human tendency to form connections with people most like yourself, thereby (unconsciously) excluding those who may look, dress, talk, think and feel in ways outside of your natural comfort zone.

Dr. Heidi K. Gardner is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and was previously a professor at Harvard Business School and a consultant at McKinsey & Co. Named by Thinkers50 as a Next Generation Business Guru, she has lived and worked on four continents and holds a PhD from London Business School.

Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His newest book is Emotionomics 2.0: The Emotional Dynamics Underlying Key Business Goals. To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com.

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