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Smarter Collaboration
Books
20 years of research from the world's leading experts on collaboration
Smarter Collaboration: A New Approach to Breaking Down Barriers and Transforming Work
Groundbreaking solutions. This indispensablebook lays out a pragmatic action plan blending rich stories, new empirical research, and loads of practical advice to help companies thrive by collaborating more effectively.
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Harvard professor Dr. Heidi K. Gardner and senior executive Ivan A. Matviak show that firms that collaborate smarter consistently generate higher revenues and profits, boost innovation, strengthen client relationships, and attract and retain better talent.
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In this successor to Dr. Gardner's bestselling book, Smart Collaboration, the authors expand their mandate, illustrating the fundamental dynamics of collaborating well across industries like financial services, health care, biotech/pharma, consumer products, automotive, and technology.
Based on research with thousands of executives from around the world, they share deep insights on how to implement smarter collaboration and avoid the potential pitfalls. They also help leaders troubleshoot thorny challenges like misaligned incentives, collaboration overload, and unintended consequences on diversity and inclusion.
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Complete with how-tos and cases, the book concludes with inspiring examples of groups harnessing smarter collaboration to tackle society’s biggest challenges such as saving the oceans, eradicating diseases, and tackling global warming.
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Smarter Collaboration is the essential guide for forward-thinking leaders to transform their organizations, reshape the way they work, and increase impact and success.
Smart Collaboration:
How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos
Not all collaboration is smart. Make sure you do it right.
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Professional service firms face a serious challenge. Their clients increasingly need them to solve complex problems – everything from regulatory compliance to cybersecurity, the kinds of problems that only teams of multidisciplinary experts can tackle.
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Yet most firms have carved up their highly specialized, professional experts into narrowly defined practice areas, and collaborating across these silos is often messy, risky, and expensive. Unless you know why you’re collaborating and how to do it effectively, it may not be smart at all. That’s especially true for partners who have built their reputations and client rosters independently, not by working with peers.
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​In Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos (a Washington Post bestseller), Dr. Heidi K. Gardner shows that firms earn higher margins, inspire greater client loyalty, attract and retain the best talent, and gain a competitive edge when specialists collaborate across functional boundaries.
Dr. Gardner, a former McKinsey consultant and Harvard Business School professor now lecturing at Harvard Law School, has spent over a decade conducting in-depth studies of numerous global professional service firms. Her research with clients and the empirical results of her studies demonstrate clearly and convincingly that collaboration pays, for both professionals and their firms.
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But Dr. Gardner also offers powerful prescriptions for how leaders can foster collaboration, move to higher-margin work, increase client satisfaction, improve lateral hiring, decrease enterprise risk, engage workers to contribute their utmost, break down silos, and boost their bottom line.
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With case studies and real-world insights, Smart Collaboration delivers an authoritative case for the value of collaboration to today’s professionals, their firms, and their clients and shows you exactly how to achieve it.​​​​
Smart Collaboration: For In-House and Legal Teams
In-house legal teams are under more pressure than ever to add value to their organizations. This Special Report combines the rigor of Harvard research with a pragmatic focus based on input from hundreds of General Counsels, in-house lawyers, CEOs, and board members to show why and how legal teams work across silos – what we call “smart collaboration.” It includes the business case, practical tips, case studies, and tools to help legal teams master the four essential "vectorsof collaboration:
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Within legal: Rethink hiring and onboarding. Collaborate across countries and cultures. Elevate leadership skills and engineer work to make time for collaboration.
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With the business: Create more innovative, strategic solutions by partnering with business leaders. Proactively engage with the board and C-suite to deliver value.
Across functions: Integrate with other departments (finance, R&D, HR, etc.) to create more holistic solutions that capture opportunities, lower risk, and improve the employee and customer experience.
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Externally: Co-develop solutions to shape regulatory agendas and inform public discourse. Maximize value with outside counsel and other third-party legal providers.
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Vetted by dozens of General Counsel and in-house lawyers, this report will benefit all members of in-house legal teams and those who work with them (e.g., executives, heads of other corporate functions, recruiters, and consultants). Partners and leaders in law firms will also gain from a deeper understanding of their clients' operations and aspirations.
Smart Collaboration For Lateral Hiring: Successful Strategies to Recruit and Integrate Laterals in Law Firms
One of the biggest challenges in today’s law firms is recruiting partners, experienced associates, and senior business professionals into the firm – and then finding ways to integrate them, retain them, and help make them sustainably productive. Yet, many firms are misallocating their efforts and resources.​
This Special Report offers a new, research-based approach for law firms to improve their lateral hiring process and results by engaging new hires in smart collaboration. Laterals who collaborate with their new colleagues are significantly more likely to stay with the firm longer, to hit or exceed their targets, and to thrive professionally. Firms need a well-constructed plan, a relentless focus on execution, and clear accountability processes if they expect to help laterals achieve two-way collaboration quickly and efficiently. This Special Report offers the tools, processes, and best practices for successful implementation.
Aimed at readers who aspire to take a more strategic approach to improve lateral hiring, this report will be useful for law firm leaders, hiring partners, and professional executives such as chief operating officers and chief talent officers. Lawyers or business executives considering a career move across firms, or business professionals seeking to move into the legal sector, will find practical ways to boost their likelihood of success.