Burn out due to over-collaboration - team micro managing

 Thu 12 Oct 2023

Keep Collaboration Overload from Burning Out Your Team ! 

Many people believe burnout is always caused by too much work. In fact, it can also be driven by something seemingly innocuous: too much collaboration. To reduce burnout caused by collaboration overload on your team, start by asking these questions.

(1) Can we reduce structural complexity? 

Investigate your team’s hierarchical structure, communication habits, and competing priorities. Then identify places of redundancy or inefficiency that can be improved.

(2) Do our workflows still make sense? 

Ask your team where new technologies and platforms have introduced complexity, additional work, and stress. Then agree on a new set of simpler, team-wide, collaborative norms.

(3) Are micro-teams causing microstress? 

Organizations increasingly rely on smaller sub-teams to take on projects, which requires more communication and collaboration between employees. Keep the number of these micro-teams in check to mitigate collaboration creep.

(4) Do employees feel a sense of purpose? 

While many organizations focus on rallying employees around a collective corporate purpose, research suggests that purpose can also be found in positive, everyday interactions with colleagues. Enable employees to build on each other’s ideas, which helps create a sense that you’re in this together.

This tip is adapted from “What’s Fueling Burnout in Your Organization?,” by Rob Cross et al.