Rebecca Hinds, PhD

Today’s workers feel numbed by a fragmented, unpredictable, and overwhelming collection of collaboration tools — the very things advertised to boost their productivity. They know they’re overloaded and feel exhausted but believe there is little or nothing they can do to slow the onslaught of communication. The authors explored how collaboration technology bloat impacts employees and tried to help people take control over their work. They called their intervention the “collaboration cleanse.”… Show more

Today’s workers feel numbed by a fragmented, unpredictable, and overwhelming collection of collaboration tools — the very things advertised to boost their productivity. They know they’re overloaded and feel exhausted but believe there is little or nothing they can do to slow the onslaught of communication. The authors explored how collaboration technology bloat impacts employees and tried to help people take control over their work. They called their intervention the “collaboration cleanse.” Here are their findings, as well as strategies for leaders to simplify employees’ collaboration tool use. Show less

Leaders often suffer from “power poisoning” and fixate on their own needs and ambitions. A perspective swap — where, for example, a CEO works as a customer service representative for a day, or an HR representative works in sales for a week — can help detox leaders from blind spots and distorted views of what’s actually happening on their teams. Perspective swaps can also be effective when applied laterally across different teams, such as sales, and marketing, helping cross-functional teams gain… Show more

Leaders often suffer from “power poisoning” and fixate on their own needs and ambitions. A perspective swap — where, for example, a CEO works as a customer service representative for a day, or an HR representative works in sales for a week — can help detox leaders from blind spots and distorted views of what’s actually happening on their teams. Perspective swaps can also be effective when applied laterally across different teams, such as sales, and marketing, helping cross-functional teams gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that other departments face. At the heart of perspective swaps is the idea that there is always more than one way to view a situation. They help build “cognitive flexibility” — the ability to think creatively and adaptively in response to new situations and change efforts. Ultimately, perspective swaps can foster a culture of innovation and empowerment that leads to better outcomes for everyone involved. Show less

In today’s digital-first world, achieving great customer experiences is more challenging than ever. Customers interact with companies in a dizzying array of places. They no longer only interact with a call center worker or a delivery driver; they liaise with email campaigns, chatbots, review sites, and social media. Companies have tried to adapt to this digital-first, omnichannel environment for years. But many have failed to create great, unified customer experiences. Research has shown that… Show more

In today’s digital-first world, achieving great customer experiences is more challenging than ever. Customers interact with companies in a dizzying array of places. They no longer only interact with a call center worker or a delivery driver; they liaise with email campaigns, chatbots, review sites, and social media. Companies have tried to adapt to this digital-first, omnichannel environment for years. But many have failed to create great, unified customer experiences. Research has shown that standout customer experiences are fueled by new, cross-functional collaborations across organizations. Customer experience can no longer be driven by the frontline sales representative or even a dedicated customer experience team — everyone in your organization has a role to play. This article explores how leaders can lay the foundation for great customer experiences within their company walls before it’s served up to customers. It requires a cross-functional commitment and collaborative execution. Show less

Employees are drowning in excessive or misaligned goals set by too many external stakeholders with competing needs and demands. This causes workers to lose sight of their highest priorities and the deliverables that they are accountable for, and results in them falling into collaborative overload as they engage in non-critical work. The burden of tackling collaboration overload often falls on employees to be more intentional about their approach to work, but the responsibility lies with… Show more

Employees are drowning in excessive or misaligned goals set by too many external stakeholders with competing needs and demands. This causes workers to lose sight of their highest priorities and the deliverables that they are accountable for, and results in them falling into collaborative overload as they engage in non-critical work. The burden of tackling collaboration overload often falls on employees to be more intentional about their approach to work, but the responsibility lies with organizations as well. This article covers four key ways that organizations can reduce collaboration overload for their people. Each of the four antidotes discussed involves managers becoming more informed about how collaboration is actually happening in their organizations. Show less

We've been studying how organizations can make the right things easier and the wrong things harder since 2014. In every workplace we've studied, helped, or worked at, we've found that meetings create wasteful and soul-crushing friction. To find out how to reduce that friction by “repairing” meetings, we conducted two studies — “Meeting Doomsday” and a “Meeting Reset” — at Asana, a company that builds work-management software. We used what they learned to create a step-by-step guide to help… Show more

We've been studying how organizations can make the right things easier and the wrong things harder since 2014. In every workplace we've studied, helped, or worked at, we've found that meetings create wasteful and soul-crushing friction. To find out how to reduce that friction by “repairing” meetings, we conducted two studies — “Meeting Doomsday” and a “Meeting Reset” — at Asana, a company that builds work-management software. We used what they learned to create a step-by-step guide to help managers identify, eliminate, and repair broken meetings. Here, we discuss five key ingredients for success. Show less

By identifying the socio-technical conditions required for teams to work effectively remotely, the Distance Matters framework has been influential in CSCW since its introduction in 2000. Advances in collaboration technology and practices have since brought teams increasingly closer to achieving these conditions. This paper presents a ten-month ethnography in a remote organization, where we observed that despite exhibiting excellent remote collaboration, teams paradoxically struggled to… Show more

By identifying the socio-technical conditions required for teams to work effectively remotely, the Distance Matters framework has been influential in CSCW since its introduction in 2000. Advances in collaboration technology and practices have since brought teams increasingly closer to achieving these conditions. This paper presents a ten-month ethnography in a remote organization, where we observed that despite exhibiting excellent remote collaboration, teams paradoxically struggled to collaborate across team boundaries. We extend the Distance Matters framework to account for inter-team collaboration, arguing that challenges analogous to those in the original intra-team framework --- common ground, collaboration readiness, collaboration technology readiness, and coupling of work --- persist but are actualized differently at the inter-team scale. Finally, we identify a fundamental tension between the intra- and inter-team layers: the collaboration technology and practices that help individual teams thrive (e.g., adopting customized collaboration software) can also prompt collaboration challenges in the inter-team layer, and conversely the technology and practices that facilitate inter-team collaboration (e.g., strong centralized IT organizations) can harm practices at the intra-team layer. The addition of the inter-team layer to the Distance Matters framework opens new opportunities for CSCW, where balancing the tension between team and organizational collaboration needs will be a critical technological, operational, and organizational challenge for remote work in the coming decades. Show less

In 2012, software company Adobe Systems transitioned from using annual performance reviews to a system of ongoing, flexible, “check-ins.” The check-ins involved setting and tracking expectations, ongoing feedback and coaching, and opportunities for growth. The case reviews the deficiencies in the traditional annual review system, the philosophy underlying the change, and its relationship to Adobe’s corporate strategy.

After a delayed shipment of flooring materials impeded Jeff Booth’s ability to complete a construction project on schedule, he, along with cofounder Robert Banks, was determined to solve the inefficiency of the heavyweight building supply industry. They founded BuildDirect, an e-commerce company based on a sophisticated technology platform that optimized the shipment of home improvement products.
Since its founding in 1999, BuildDirect faced several near-death strategic and economic… Show more

After a delayed shipment of flooring materials impeded Jeff Booth’s ability to complete a construction project on schedule, he, along with cofounder Robert Banks, was determined to solve the inefficiency of the heavyweight building supply industry. They founded BuildDirect, an e-commerce company based on a sophisticated technology platform that optimized the shipment of home improvement products.
Since its founding in 1999, BuildDirect faced several near-death strategic and economic challenges, including the fallout of 9/11 and the 2008 housing crisis. In spite of these challenges, Booth and Banks never wavered in prioritizing corporate culture over bottom line results. To guide effective employee actions and behaviors, three core values of honesty, integrity, and respect for others had been engrained into the company’s DNA. Rituals such as daily “huddles” strengthened employee morale, increased emotional intelligence, and enhanced customer service. Company culture was a major competitive advantage; employees felt empowered to view the home improvement purchase process as an enriching experience, rather than as a mere transaction.
This case is designed to help students understand the role of culture in organizations. Through the lens of BuildDirect, students are introduced to several initiatives and norms that fostered an effective corporate culture. Students consider ways in which companies can sustain a winning culture in parallel with rapid growth. Show less