How to know when you're over-collaborating

Striking a balance between digital collaboration and overdoing it can be tricky. Over the two years of the pandemic, organisations have become reliant on the technologies that bring colleagues closer.  

 

However, the digital toolkit hasn’t come at no cost. Excessive collaboration happens when charity staff spend too much time communicating with colleagues.  

 

Here, we go over some of the signs and challenges of overcollaboration and what to do about it.  

 

 

What’s over-collaboration?  

 

Over-collaboration, or excessive collaboration, happens when colleagues spend so much time coordinating and communicating that productivity suffers. INC, a business magazine, defines the phenomenon as: “Excessive collaboration – created when the pace, volume and diversity of meetings, phone calls, email, IM and other collaborative platforms erodes performance and well-being.”  

 

Put more simply, excessive collaboration occurs when staff spend too much time in meetings, writing emails, online chatting, and communicating, rather than doing. In addition to declining productivity, too much collaboration can also lead to mental stress and burn-out.  

 

 

How do I spot excessive collaboration?

 

The tell-tale signs of excessive collaboration start with:  

 

• Too many meetings 

 One clear sign of over-collaboration is the number of meetings. While coordinating people and tasks does require meetings, too many of them reduces productivity and can lead to burn out. 

 

Writing for McKinsey, Rob Cross, Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College says that: “One of the crazy things during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, is that many of us have had this great idea that we’re just going to try to jam more meetings in the same day, right? So you move from eight one-hour meetings pre-pandemic to 16 30-minute meetings now. And it’s exhausting.” 

 

 

• Everyone is invited  

There is such a thing as too much communication. Updating colleagues is normally a good thing, but too many participants in a meeting creates confusion.  

 

From waiting for everyone to join to unnecessary questions, meetings can overrun and waste time. To avoid this, hold meetings with essential parties only – updates can be done on the side.  

 

 

• Digital communication tools overlap 

Between chat boxes, emails, video conferencing, text messages, and phone calls, there are lots of overlapping ways to reach someone using digital. Tech magazine the Next Web observes that communications can become chaotic because each tool only takes care of a small selection of tasks.  

 

The top tip here is to do some soul searching – take the time to understand the tools and ask whether they should, or shouldn’t be implemented. Think of all the group chats you’re in and wonder whether it is necessary to start another.  

 

 

• Language has taken a turn 

Another tell-tale sign that over collaboration is happening is when language takes a turn for the worse. Curt, rude, or snappy responses are signs that collaboration isn’t working.  

 

Other indications that language has taken a turn are emails with responses just in the subject line, or typos from normally very articulate professionals.  

 

 

• There are few moments for uninterrupted work  

Jumping to and from meetings leaves little time for concentrated work. Adding to meetings are notifications and urgent requests which detract from deep thinking.  

 

Even once small matters are attended to, it takes most professionals some time before refocusing on the real work.  

 

Panopto, the video platform summarises the situation neatly: “The over-use of real-time communications produces frequent interruptions, keeping employees from higher-value work.”  

 

 

• Decisions take longer than normal 

Another sign of over-collaboration is that the decision-making process slows. There are suddenly many individuals involved with data scattered across different digital channels.  

 

Our top tip here is to think about reassigning the approval process to local team members. That way, staff central to the problem are empowered to solve the issue.  

 

 

• You say yes, to everything 

The digital world is full of new projects and responsibilities. There is an inherent desire to be helpful. Yet when it comes to over-collaboration, jumping in might, in fact, create more work.  

 

TED, the talk organisers, summarises the effect: “If you jump in too quickly or too often, you can become a target for ever-expanding requests that bog you down and prevent you from meeting your bigger goals.”   

 

To steer clear of this ‘yes’ problem, practice teaching rather than doing. Empower your colleagues, juniors, and bosses to solve the problem themselves.   

 

 

• Unnecessary FYIs 

Being copied on emails that are beyond core responsibilities, or being asked for input is flattering but time-consuming.  

 

For organisations suffering from too much collaboration, ask colleagues to reduce the FYI notices since they are distracting and don’t require any decision-making.