Has collaboration gone to far

By one estimate, knowledge workers spend up to 85% of their time dealing with requests for shared input. The economist has called it “the collaboration curse”. Is it time to stop sharing?

We Need Digital ‘Do Not Disturb’ Signs
A lot of the time, collaboration is necessary, and you need to keep one or two people in the loop.

Problems arise when you include people on the periphery who don’t need to be involved in making decisions or helping things progress – that’s when collaboration backfires on you

It can be a matter of ‘be careful what you wish for’: being in one loop is one thing, but being in 101 loops can be overwhelming.

All of these things have ways of raising your attention, and what you have to do is find a way to prioritise what you want to allow to interrupt you.

I want to be able to pick different ways of being contacted. I also need to be able to tell my communication tools – and my team members – when I need ‘do not disturb time’. This will allow me to go to my focus room and have some quiet space to think and work.

In theory, that’s easily done in the physical world, but electronically it’s hard to hide.