In this Leadership Series episode, learn how high performing organizations and professionals harness the power of networks to innovate, execute AND gain 20% of their time back by avoiding the pitfalls of collaborative overload.

• Why: The collaborative intensity of work has exploded over the past decade. Most knowledge workers or leaders spend 85% or more time in a given week on email, in meetings and on the phone. Some factors contributing to this include the transition to matrix-based structures, increased complexity of products and services, globalization, email proliferation and adoption of collaborative tools and social media. This places an enormous – and invisible — cost on organizations and people. Technology, demanding bosses, needy clients and inefficient co-workers are problematic. But for most of us, these time drains are matched by another enemy – ourselves. While there is undeniably a more demanding reality today, much of the problem is driven by how we decide to structure that reality or let our calendars and “to do” lists look like someone else’s idea of fun.

• What: Over the past eight years, Rob Cross has been involved in qualitative and quantitative research across 50+ firms addressing how organizations and professionals harness networks to innovate, execute and manage collaborative overload efficiently.