Knowledge Management Thought Leader 6: Heidi K. Gardner

Originally posted 05-May-22

Heidi K. Gardner is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession and Program Chair of the Sector Leadership Master Class and Smarter Collaboration Master Class.

Previously she was a professor at Harvard Business School and continues to teach executive education there and at other Harvard graduate schools. Heidi studies collaboration between highly autonomous, powerful knowledge workers such as partners in professional service firms, physicians, and research scientists. Her book, Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos, provides hard evidence for why collaboration is essential in today’s complex world.

Her next book, Smarter Collaboration, captures new research, case studies and practical, tested applications of the concepts in industries ranging from healthcare, banking, government agencies, technology, manufacturing, media, retail and more. It is scheduled for release with Harvard Business Press in fall 2022.

Profiles

1. Wikipedia
2. Harvard Law School
3. Harvard University Professional and Lifelong Learning
4. Gardner & Co.
5. LinkedIn
6. Profiles in Knowledge

Posts

1. Twitter
2. LinkedIn Posts

Book

Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Why Collaborate?
• Chapter 1: The Business Case for Collaboration
• Chapter 2: The People Case for Collaboration
• Chapter 3: Collaboration and the Solo Specialist
• Chapter 4: The Seasoned Collaborator
• Chapter 5: Collaboration and the Contributor
• Chapter 6: Collaboration for Ringmasters
• Chapter 7: Looking Sideways at Collaboration
• Chapter 8: Collaboration: Yes, Your Clients Care

Other Content

1. Website: Gardner & Co.
2. Smart Collaboration
3. Over-committed organizations
4. Harvard Business Review
5. Harvard Business School
6. ResearchGate

The Smart Collaboration Accelerator

The Seven Dimensions of Smart Collaboration

The Accelerator identifies and quantifies an individual’s behavioral tendencies. These are not immutable aspects of an individual’s personality but their natural ways of behaving. There are no good or bad behavioral preferences. No matter where a person sits on each dimension, this strength can be used as catalyst to improve collaboration when used with intentionality.

1. Wary / Trusting: The level of inherent and contextual trust in others
2. Complex / Concrete: Attraction to more complex problems and innovation
3. Risk Spotter / Risk Seeker: Captures a person’s innate beliefs about the balance of risk versus opportunity when working with others
4. Close / Distant: The frequency and nature of communication with others
5. Hands on / Hands off: Level of need for control of one’s environment / work
6. Responder / Initiator: Taking the initiative and anticipating events
7. Individual / Group: Prioritizing working in groups on one’s own