The Harvard Law School Library staff invite you to attend a book talk and discussion in celebration of Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos (Harvard Business Review Press, Jan 3. 2017) by Heidi K. Gardner, Lecturer on Law and Distinguished Fellow in the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. Copies of Smart Collaboration will be available for sale and Professor Gardner will be available for signing books at the end of her talk.
Monday, January 30, 2016 at noon, with lunch
Harvard Law School Room WCC 2019 Milstein West A (Directions)
1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge
More About Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos
“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.” — Harvard Business Review Press
About Heidi K. Gardner
Heidi K. Gardner, PhD, is a Distinguished Fellow in the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. She also serves as a Lecturer on Law and the Faculty Chair of the school’s Accelerated Leadership Program executive course. She was previously on the faculty at Harvard Business School. Gardner has also been awarded an International Research Fellowship at Oxford University’s Said Business School.
Dr. Gardner’s research focuses on leadership and collaboration in professional service firms, and her book Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos will be published by Harvard Business Press in January 2016. Her research received the Academy of Management’s prize for Outstanding Practical Paper with Implications for Management. She has authored or co-authored more than fifty book chapters, case studies, and articles in scholarly and practitioner journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Harvard Business Review. Her first book, Leadership for Lawyers: Essential Strategies for Law Firm Success was co-edited with Rebecca Normand-Hochman and published in 2015.
Dr. Gardner has lived and worked on four continents, including positions with McKinsey & Co. and Procter & Gamble, and as a Fulbright Scholar. She holds a BA in Japanese Studies from the University of Pennsylvania (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), a masters degree from the London School of Economics (with honors), and a second masters and doctorate in organizational behavior from London Business School.