INTHEBLACK May 2022 - Magazine - Page 62
WORK
SMART
// H Y P E R C O L L A B O R AT I O N
TOO
MUCH OF
A GOOD
THING?
AFTER AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF
USING MORE MEETINGS TO REPLICATE
IN-PERSON INTERACTION AND
COLLABORATION, ARE WE NOW IN
DANGER OF OVER-COLLABORATING?
STORY AMANDA WOODARD
T
he amount of time dedicated to meetings has
meant we often work longer days in a bid to play
catch-up.
One of the larger studies into the issue of overwork,
by the US National Bureau of Economic Research, has
gathered data from 16 cities in Europe, the US and
Israel, showing that overall meeting attendance has
increased by 12.9 per cent as compared to pre-pandemic
levels, while the number of people attending meetings
has gone up too, by 13.5 per cent. On the plus side,
meetings are becoming shorter and, therefore, possibly
more focused.
Rob Cross, leadership professor at Babson College in
the US, is convinced the trend towards over-collaboration
began long before the pandemic.
“Dysfunctional collaboration”, as he calls it, is when
the pace, volume and diversity of meetings, phone calls,
62 ITB May 2022
email, instant messages (IMs) and other collaborative
platforms erodes performance and wellbeing, often
leading to burnout and attrition.
Cross’s latest book, Beyond Collaboration Overload, is
a practical guide based on the collaborative habits of
top performers. Cross says these people are able to
reclaim almost a day a week “by structuring their work
differently, managing personal biases to collaborative
work and engaging efficiently across collaboration
platforms”.
OVER-STRUCTURED INTERACTION
Professor Chris Jackson, from the School of
Management and Governance at the University of New
South Wales, believes that remote working and the
emergence of hybrid work models means that
communication is becoming more formalised.
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