Lessons from Heidi K. Gardner

Heidi K. Gardner, a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and a leading authority on collaboration, has revolutionized how organizations approach teamwork and complex problem-solving. Her extensive research, detailed in bestselling books like "Smart Collaboration" and "Smarter Collaboration," provides a roadmap for professionals and firms to achieve greater success by breaking down silos and working together more intelligently.

The Case for Smarter Collaboration

On the essence of smart collaboration: A team of knowledge professionals who combine expertise, help, advice, encouragement and counterbalance to tackle complex problems that none could solve individually. [1]
Collaboration as a competitive advantage: Firms that collaborate smarter consistently generate higher revenues and profits, boost innovation, strengthen client relationships, and attract and retain better talent. [2][3]
Not all collaboration is created equal: Not all collaboration is smart. Make sure you do it right. [3] Unless you know why you're collaborating and how to do it effectively, it may not be smart at all. [3]
Moving beyond cross-selling: Smart collaboration is not the same as cross-selling. [1] It's about integrating expertise to solve complex client problems.
The financial upside: Analyses clearly show that revenue, profit and customer loyalty all increase as effective collaboration, especially with partners, increases. [1][4]
Innovation as a product of collaboration: Collaboration leads to more innovative solutions. These are solutions that are both new and useful and will therefore provide greater benefits to clients in the long run. [1]
The talent imperative: See collaboration as a winning strategy to integrate experienced talent and make them more productive, to attract and retain the best talent (especially millennials), to keep your talent motivated and engaged while they are with you, and even to retained as "friends of the company" when they leave. [1]
Addressing modern challenges: Market volatility, sustainability demands, and hybrid working are among the daunting challenges that necessitate smarter collaboration. [2]
The core challenge for knowledge-based organizations: The main challenge for such an organization is to bring that collective expertise to bear on complex issues that are becoming increasingly sophisticated so that no single expert – no matter how smart or hardworking – is able to solve them alone. [1]
A pragmatic roadmap: Gardner's work offers a pragmatic action plan blending rich stories, new empirical research, and loads of practical advice to help companies thrive by collaborating more effectively. [2][5]

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration

The myth of "more is better": There is a myth that if some collaboration is good, more is better. This leads to what Dr. Gardner calls over-collaboration. [6]
The trap of over-collaboration: Over-collaboration is the notion that every initiative requires the full team, which is where thoughtfulness comes into play. [6]
The problem of overcommitment: Professionals often have too many emails, too many meetings, and too many projects, which stems from good intentions but leads to being stretched too thin. [7]
The consequence of being stretched thin: When stretched too thin, individuals end up doing fairly similar work project after project and don't have the time to engage deeply, stretch their skills, learn, or improve. [7]
The two types of trust: Competence trust (believing in someone's ability to deliver high-quality work) and interpersonal trust (not thinking the person is a "jerk") are both essential for collaboration. [7]
The discomfort with vulnerability: Many leaders find vulnerability difficult, which can be a significant internal barrier to fostering a collaborative environment. [8]
Performance pressure as a double-edged sword: Performance pressure can enhance team motivation but undermine the use of team knowledge. [9]
The challenge of independent success: It's especially true for partners who have built their reputations and client rosters independently, not by working with peers, to embrace collaboration. [3]
The pain barrier: The initial costs and risks of smart collaboration can be high, and many organizations quit before they get past the "pain barrier" to see the benefits. [10]
The need for patience: All benefits will flow from collaboration, but they don't happen overnight. [10]

How to Collaborate Smarter

Collaboration is not a "soft skill": Dr. Gardner shuts down the idea that collaboration is a soft skill in the workplace, explaining that smart collaboration is the only way to get the most important work done. [6]
Be hyper-intentional: Smarter collaboration starts with keeping the end goal in mind and being hyper-intentional about who you bring together. [6]
Ask the right questions: To start thinking smarter, consider: what kind of experts do you need? At what point do you need to bring different people in so they can contribute different perspectives? Whose life experience could lead to the best possible results? [6]
Value life experience: Dr. Gardner emphasizes the importance of life experience in the room – not just who is well-known, who puts their hand up, or who you've worked with recently. [6]
Create psychological safety: Once the right voices are present, it's important to ensure those people feel safe to speak up and share ideas. [6]
Lean into tough conversations: Smarter collaboration requires people to lean into tough conversations and pressure test ideas to get the gems. [6]
Make time together count: With the shift to hybrid work, it's crucial to be thoughtful about how to collaborate effectively in new ways of working. [6]
Leverage diversity of thought: It's crucial to make the most of the diversity on a team. Even when you don't like to hear it, dissenting voices are probably telling you something really important. [7]
Understand behavioral tendencies: Gardner identifies seven key dimensions of collaboration, such as "Risk Spotter / Risk Seeker" and "Individual / Group," which are natural ways of behaving, not immutable personality traits. [11]
Self-reflection is key for leaders: I think all of us benefit from self-reflection. But a lot of leaders these days are so pressured their time is in such high demand... that it feels like reflection is a luxury. [8]

Leadership and Culture for Collaboration

Leadership's role in motivation: Real leadership comes in when you have to keep people motivated and engaged and on point to reach towards bigger goals, as problems become more complex. [8]
Fostering a collaborative culture: An organization's culture determines its destiny. Smarter Collaboration does an excellent job of showing you how to get a great one. [5]
Leaders must model behavior: Leaders can foster collaboration by moving to higher-margin work, increasing client satisfaction, and breaking down silos. [3]
The power of introspection for leaders: When people are under pressure their ability to think expansively diminishes radically... what we need people to understand first of all is back to some ideas around introspection. [8]
Creating an environment where people feel valued: Successful results come from those who believe their voice is valued and understand what they will get from going out of their comfort zones. [6]
Leaders need to learn new skills: The level of engagement in the realities of collaboration and purpose is something that a lot of leaders aren't comfortable with and don't take the time to learn the skills that they really need to deliver it. [8]
Guiding participants to deepen trust: Workshops can bring together top stakeholders to build stronger, more effective, sustainable collaboration that drives measurable improvement in outcomes by deepening trust and building multi-threaded relationships. [12]
The importance of communication: If you're one of those risk-spotters, you probably need to learn to raise issues in ways that those people can understand what you're talking about, you're not just shooting down every idea. [7]
Embrace and promote collaboration: We still need to make a compelling business case for why leaders should embrace and promote collaboration. [4]
Harnessing inclusivity for higher performance: Engagement and collaboration aren't “soft topics”—they are the best way to achieve higher performance. [12]

The Future of Collaboration

A favorite quote: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." [7]
Helping customers 'see' around corners: The value generated by a team is far beyond the individual members of a team. You're helping customers 'see' around corners. [10]
The increasing need for multi-disciplinary solutions: As the world around us continues to be volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, the need for multi-disciplinary solutions for customers will increase. [10]
The role of Generative AI: One of our global beverage clients regularly brings GenAI into her team's conversations, asking it questions about risk, compliance, and sustainability to gain new perspectives and challenge the group's thinking. [2]
From "Why" to "How": "Smart Collaboration" focused primarily on the why, stressing that the benefits of cross-functional collaboration are real and can be measured. "Smarter Collaboration" focuses on the "wise who's and hows." [4]
Broadening the scope: The definition of smart collaboration has gotten broader and deeper, and it's time to take these ideas to the next level. [4]
Tackling society's biggest challenges: Inspiring examples show groups harnessing smarter collaboration to tackle society's biggest challenges such as saving the oceans, eradicating diseases, and tackling global warming. [2]
Diversity and inclusion are not just about presence: 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. [13]
The evolution of Gardner's work: Her work has evolved to consolidate learnings about best practices and provide a road map for execution. [4]
A continuous journey: The journey to smarter collaboration is ongoing, requiring continuous effort to embed the principles and practices within teams and across the broader organization. [14][15]

Learn more:

Lessons from Heidi K. Gardner

The Case for Smarter Collaboration

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration

How to Collaborate Smarter

Leadership and Culture for Collaboration

The Future of Collaboration

Written by Antoine Buteau

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