Article

Collaborate Smarter, Not Harder

Through analytics, companies can reduce overload, attrition, and other costs of collaboration – and increase its rewards.

Rob Cross, Thomas H. Davenport and Peter Gray

MIT Sloan Management Review, 2019

Read the article

Read, Listen, or Discuss

Amazon Kindle Discuss

1×

تسجيل الدخول للاستماع إلى ملخص الصوت.

Editorial Rating

getAbstract Rating

Well Structured
Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Collaboration is often sold as a universal positive. However, without the proper structure and analysis, collaboration can actually undermine corporate goals. This engaging guide by business professors Rob Cross, Thomas H. Davenport and Peter Gray for the MIT Sloan Management Review will help any reader – whether a junior analyst or a senior manager – to understand not just why but how teams should collaborate. It also provides detailed, real-world examples showing that the right collaboration analysis will yield improvements across several areas, including employee morale, retention and increased productivity. Diagrams and a digestible list-style structure help make the full article a worthwhile read.

Summary

Collaboration makes companies more competitive – but at a cost.

Collaboration helps companies respond to client needs, adapt to new technology, innovate quickly and otherwise stay relevant. Unfortunately, collaboration often comes at the expense of efficiency. Contacting, incorporating and documenting more voices can bog down projects in additional emails, meetings and phone calls. Technology – and the expectations of instant delivery and response that it creates – has exacerbated the problem. Research shows that responding to questions and messages can divert attention, making it difficult to focus on the task at hand. The work becomes even harder with many platforms to manage; studies show that most companies give their employees an average of nine ways to connect with others. With each employee ...

About the Authors

Rob Cross and Thomas H. Davenport are both professors at Babson College. Peter Gray is a business professor at the University of Virginia.

Comment on this summary

Sign in to share your opinion
J. M. 2 years ago

Good
N. A. 3 years ago

A good read

Collaborate Smarter, Not Harder

Through analytics, companies can reduce overload, attrition, and other costs of collaboration – and increase its rewards.

Read, Listen, or Discuss

Editorial Rating

getAbstract Rating

Recommendation

Summary

Collaboration makes companies more competitive – but at a cost.

About the Authors

My Highlights

Comment on this summary

More on this topic

By the same authors

The Microstress Effect

Working with AI

Beyond Collaboration Overload

How Successful Women Manage their Networks

A Noble Purpose Alone Won’t Transform Your Company

People and Machines

The AI Advantage

Only Humans Need Apply

Learners who read this summary also read

Improving the Rhythm of Your Collaboration

Mastering Collaboration

Smart Teams

Collaborative Workspaces

Reimagining Collaboration

Teamwork is not always the best way of working – new study

Related Skills