Ep 220. Rob Cross: Breaking Free From Collaboration Overload

“People love people, they need people, they thrive on social interactions, so why are they suffering?”

Rob Cross

Rob Cross is the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College and the author of Beyond Collaboration Overload: How to Work Smarter, Get Ahead and Restore Your Well-Being. He has studied the underlying network dynamics of effective organizations and the collaborative practices of high performers for more than 20 years. Rob is cofounder and Research Director of the Connected Commons business consortium. He writes about practical approaches to enhancing collaboration, and is the coauthor of five other books, including The Hidden Power of Social Networks.

In this episode, Stew talks with Rob about the causes of the epidemic of too much collaboration at work and how this problem has reduced productivity and well-being in all parts of our lives. They discuss Rob’s research on how effective collaborators break free from the tyranny of inessential collaboration and then focus their attention and energy on, among other things, finding simple ways to cultivate diverse networks that give them greater courage via fresh perspectives they gain on how to live a good life. Rob describes how to identify and reduce what he calls the now-common “micro-stressors” in our lives.

Here then is an invitation for you, a challenge, after you’ve had a chance to listen to this episode: Identify one micro-stressor in your life – over which you can exert some control – and see if you can come up with a small step you can take to reduce or eliminate it. Share your reactions to this episode and suggestions for future shows with Stew by writing to him at friedman@wharton.upenn.edu or via LinkedIn.

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