We need a new approach for solving tough problems in a complex world-we need to collaborate smarter. Market volatility. Sustainability demands. Hybrid working. Opportunities and hazards of fast-changing technology and regulations. Companies and nonprofits face more daunting challenges than ever. How can we collaborate in our organizations-and with outside partners-to solve problems, innovate, and succeed? Smarter Collaboration offers groundbreaking solutions. This indispensable new book lays out a pragmatic action plan blending rich stories, new empirical research, and loads of practical advice to help companies thrive by collaborating more effectively. As Harvard professor Heidi K. Gardner and senior executive Ivan A. Matviak show, firms that collaborate smarter consistently generate higher revenues and profits, boost innovation, strengthen client relationships, and attract and retain better talent. In this successor to Gardner's bestselling first book, Smart Collaboration, the authors expand their mandate, illustrating the fundamental dynamics of collaborating well across industries like financial services, health care, biotech/pharma, consumer products, automotive, and technology. Based on their research with thousands of executives from around the world, they share deep insights on how to implement smarter collaboration and avoid the potential pitfalls. They also help leaders troubleshoot thorny challenges like misaligned incentives, collaboration overload, and unintended consequences on diversity and inclusion. Complete with how-tos and cases, the book concludes with inspiring examples of groups harnessing smarter collaboration to tackle society's biggest challenges such as saving the oceans, eradicating diseases, and tackling global warming. Smarter Collaboration is the essential guide for forward-thinking leaders to transform their organizations, reshape the way they work, and increase impact and success.

Performance management is changing. Adapt your approach along with it. For decades, performance management has been seen as an annual chore by managers and HR departments alike. But this process is changing, and there are ways to make it more effective at all levels of your organization. If you read nothing else on performance management in your organization, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you make your process more adaptable, conduct better feedback conversations, and encourage the growth of your employees. This book will inspire you to: Learn where current performance management processes are falling short Overcome organizational bias to evaluate performance fairly Sculpt employees' jobs to meet their skill sets and interests Boost collaboration by aligning goals across functions Use people analytics ethically and transparently Help your people identify and use their strengths This collection of articles includes "The Performance Management Revolution," by Peter Cappelli and Anna Tavis; "Reinventing Performance Management," by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall; "Getting 360-Degree Feedback Right," by Maury A. Peiperl; "The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome," by Jean-François Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux; "Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People," by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop; "Performance Management Shouldn't Kill Collaboration," by Heidi K. Gardner and Ivan Matviak; "The Happy Tracked Employee," by Ben Waber; "Don't Let Metrics Undermine Your Business," by Michael Harris and Bill Tayler; "Numbers Take Us Only So Far," by Maxine Williams; "Managers Can't Do It All," by Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton; and "Creating Sustainable Performance," by Gretchen Spreitzer and Christine Porath. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.

Be mindful, empathetic, and authentic-even on-screen. Managing your team, building relationships and trust, and facilitating effective meetings in a hybrid or fully remote workforce is challenging. Virtual EI explores how to develop, practice, and demonstrate your emotional intelligence and social skills in a virtual or hybrid setting. You'll learn how to make your team feel heard, draw everyone's voice into the conversation, and make real connections. This volume includes the work of: Amy C. Edmondson Mark Mortensen Heidi K. Gardner Amanda Sinclair How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

Not all collaboration is smart. Make sure you do it right. Professional service firms face a serious challenge. Their clients increasingly need them to solve complex problems--everything from regulatory compliance to cybersecurity, the kinds of problems that only teams of multidisciplinary experts can tackle. Yet most firms have carved up their highly specialized, professional experts into narrowly defined practice areas, and collaborating across these silos is often messy, risky, and expensive. Unless you know why you're collaborating and how to do it effectively, it may not be smart at all. That's especially true for partners who have built their reputations and client rosters independently, not by working with peers. In Smart Collaboration, Heidi K. Gardner shows that firms earn higher margins, inspire greater client loyalty, attract and retain the best talent, and gain a competitive edge when specialists collaborate across functional boundaries. Gardner, a former McKinsey consultant and Harvard Business School professor now lecturing at Harvard Law School, has spent over a decade conducting in-depth studies of numerous global professional service firms. Her research with clients and the empirical results of her studies demonstrate clearly and convincingly that collaboration pays, for both professionals and their firms. But Gardner also offers powerful prescriptions for how leaders can foster collaboration, move to higher-margin work, increase client satisfaction, improve lateral hiring, decrease enterprise risk, engage workers to contribute their utmost, break down silos, and boost their bottom line. With case studies and real-world insights, Smart Collaboration delivers an authoritative case for the value of collaboration to today's professionals, their firms, and their clients and shows you exactly how to achieve it.

Could you benefit from expert guidance on how to stay competitive and streamlined in a legal marketplace that is increasingly competitive? Law firms are finding it harder to adapt quickly to a legal landscape that is constantly evolving. That's why it's imperative for law firm leaders to recognise and respond to this change in order to stay competitive. While the economy has improved, key challenges from the recession remain. Clients are more demanding, reducing cost is as important as it ever was, and firms realise that operational efficiency is crucial to gaining small but important margins. In this market, those small margins can be game-changers for large and small firm alike. This new and updated edition of The Lawyer's Guide to Strategic Practice Management equips law firm leaders with the very latest guidance and market knowledge on how to improve and refine current management strategies in order to thrive and compete in today's legal marketplace. From the latest developments in technology and AI, how to improve your firm's coverage on LinkedIn to increasing motivation to act on cross-selling opportunities, this guide is an amalgamation of guidance from the most talked-about thought leaders in the legal sphere. The second edition contains 7 new chapters covering strategy; market and client development; people and talent management; finance and pricing and optimisation and technology. Key features of this updated guide 33 chapters covering six key areas of law firm management Contains valuable material such as diagnostic questionnaires, how-to guides, case studies and action-planning worksheets Hear from a range of thought leaders and experts in the law firm management sphere including: Viv Williams (CEO of 360 Legal Group) Patrick J. McKenna (strategist and advisor to premier law firms) Chrissie Lightfoot (CEO of EntrepreneurLawyer Ltd) Geoff Coughlin (co-founder of Emphasis on Skills Ltd) Order your copy of this guide to: Review revenue and profit models, profitability strategies and law firm profit drivers Examine the various alternatives to the traditional billing hour Measure and manage the performance of your lawyers Find market niches and develop individual business development strategies Learn about the adoption of client listening programmes Use big data for billing and cost and forecasting analysis Build the business case for legal project management Improve client and staff communication, connectivity and collaboration strategies Inform your management strategy with the very latest market insights and find solutions to your management challenge. Order your copy of this updated guide.

One of the biggest challenges in today's law firms is recruiting partners, experienced associates, and senior business professionals into the firm-and then finding ways to integrate them, retain them, and help make them sustainably productive. Yet, many firms are misallocating their efforts and resources. This Special Report offers a new, research-based approach for law firms to improve their lateral hiring process and results by engaging new hires in smart collaboration. Laterals who collaborate with their new colleagues are significantly more likely to stay with the firm longer, to hit or exceed their targets, and to thrive professionally. Firms need a well-constructed plan, a relentless focus on execution, and clear accountability processes if they expect to help laterals achieve two-way collaboration quickly and efficiently. This Special Report offers the tools, processes, and best practices for successful implementation. Aimed at readers who aspire to take a more strategic approach to improve lateral hiring, this report will be useful for law firm leaders, hiring partners, professional executives such as chief operating officers and chief talent officers. Lawyers or business executives considering a career move across firms, or business professionals seeking to move into the legal sector, will find practical ways to boost their likelihood of success.