How to Fix Collaboration Overload

Employees are drowning in excessive or misaligned goals set by too many external stakeholders with competing needs and demands. This causes workers to lose sight of their highest priorities and the deliverables that they are accountable for, and results in them falling into collaborative overload as they engage in non-critical work. The burden of tackling collaboration overload often falls on employees to be more intentional about their approach to work, but the responsibility lies with organizations as well. This article covers four key ways that organizations can reduce collaboration overload for their people. Each of the four antidotes discussed involves managers becoming more informed about how collaboration is actually happening in their organizations.