Team play and collaboration are buzz words that have been the standard by which most companies have built their organizational strategy. In that spirit, Microsoft has totally rebuilt its office product around a team structure creating a platform that enables global collaboration.
Alas the “Kumbaya” trend may have gone overboard.
The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article indicating that white-collar employees who in the past would have worked side-by-side with a few colleagues now spend 85% of their time collaborating with multiple teams of co-workers via meetings, email, conference calls or instant messaging—often across several time zones.
Taken to an extreme, collaboration causes stress, frustration and inefficiencies. The best solution for collaborative overload is to block out time on your calendar that is yours and yours alone for focused work and reflection.