Rob Cross, a leadership professor and author of Collaboration Overload, talks about the burgeoning problem of collaboration overload in workplaces. He shares insights from efficient collaborators on reclaiming productive time amidst constant meetings. Rob discusses strategies like scheduling reflective time and creating a transparent priority clearinghouse. He also emphasizes managing expectations around communication and identifying everyday microstressors that contribute to burnout. Tune in for practical tips on improving productivity and reducing stress at work!
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insights INSIGHT
Collaboration Overload Causes
Organizational restructurings and new communication technologies increase collaborative demands.
This leads to longer work hours and reduced quality of work-life, despite seeming beneficial in isolation.
insights INSIGHT
Reactive Collaboration
While collaboration aims to increase productivity, reactive collaboration decreases it.
Efficient collaborators maintain control and prioritize strategically.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Identify Your Triggers
Recognize personal "triggers" like a desire to help or a need for accomplishment that lead to over-collaboration.
Develop awareness of these triggers to avoid being overrun with collaborative work.
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In 'Beyond Collaboration Overload,' Rob Cross provides strategies to overcome the excessive demands of collaboration that can lead to burnout and decreased performance. Through research with over 300 organizations, Cross shows how top performers collaborate more efficiently, reclaiming time and enhancing well-being. The book offers tools to identify and challenge unproductive collaboration habits and create a more structured and efficient work environment.
Beyond Collaboration Overload
Rob Cross
In 'Beyond Collaboration Overload', Rob Cross addresses the paradox of needing collaboration while avoiding its negative impacts on performance and well-being. Through research with over 300 organizations, Cross provides strategies to reclaim time, cultivate efficient networks, and energize others, leading to improved collaboration efficiency and reduced burnout.
There is seemingly more collaboration going on in the workplace than ever before. People are working and talking across teams, and within teams, using a wide array of communication channels. As a result, employees, managers, and CEOs alike can feel pulled in a ton of different directions, by a ton of different asks, and find their actual productivity shot to pieces as a result.
My guest figured there had to be a better way for folks to work together, and interviewed the most efficient collaborators to find out what they did differently to get back up to a quarter of their collaborative time. His name is Rob Cross, and he's a professor of leadership, a business consultant, and the author of Collaboration Overload. Rob and I begin our conversation with a big picture overview of the organizational and individual factors that are driving the problem of collaboration overload. We then shift to talking about the concrete tactics he learned from efficient collaborators that can help others avoid getting pulled into every conversation and project. We discuss how to limit the productivity-sapping power of meetings by scheduling reflective time, and ways to put more buffer between you and those who ask you to collaborate, including creating a transparent clearinghouse of priorities. We then discuss how to reduce collaboration overload in communication, manage people's expectations for response times, and identify the microstressors that may be contributing to your burnout.
The Art of Manliness 
