Collabor(h)ate

“We’ve all gotten stuck working with people we don’t like. Thankfully, Deb Mashek has written a lively, actionable book to fix that. Combining her expertise as a psychologist and her experience as a consultant, she reveals how we can earn trust, repair relationships, and create collaborations that bring out the best in us.”
Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

Many people have mixed feelings about workplace collaboration. On the one hand, they know collaboration is essential to achieve complex goals. On the other hand, they know collaboration is a slog. People pull in different directions. There’s desperately little communication and even less follow through. One person ends up doing all the work. The result? Friction mounts. Projects fizzle. Great people walk.

Here’s why: very few of us ever receive any formal training in how to collaborate well.

In Collabor(h)ate, Deb Mashek draws on her deep experience as a relationships researcher and collaboration facilitator to reveal everything you need to know to make workplace collaborations less painful and more productive.

Dr Deb Mashek is an experienced business consultant, professor, higher education administrator, and national nonprofit executive. She applies relationship science to help people collaborate better.
Learn more at: www.collaborhate.com

When collaboration is done well it creates an exponentially better end result but when done poorly it can create low morale, low output and a whole host of other problems. The book teaches readers a framework for collaborating better and explains the dynamics of solid team/group work.

LinkedIn

…essential reading for anyone who wants to improve collaboration and relationships in the workplace. I cannot recommend Collabor(h)ate highly enough. It is a game-changer.

Amazon

Deb Mashek is the guru of all things collaboration. She provides leaders and teams a paradigm for working better together. Deb taps her life experiences, research and business acumen in developing this easy-to-read and still super-substantive resource for all teams everywhere. Collabor(h)ate is full of great stories AND practical models and tools you can use right away.

Amazon

The Mashek Matrix is genius, akin to Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants. The launch of this book marks a paradigm shift in our business culture.

Amazon

Relatable, actionable, and empirically-based – this book is a must-read for any professional looking to improve their workplace relationships and productivity.

Amazon

The Mashek Matrix, nine strategies to positively influence collaborative relationships , and insight into understanding and managing interdependence are worth their weight in gold.

Netgalley

For a short book, it’s exceptionally powerful, and one I would not hesitate to recommend.

Netgalley

We’ve all gotten stuck working with people we don’t like. Thankfully, Deb Mashek has written a lively, actionable book to fix that. Combining her expertise as a psychologist and her experience as a consultant, she reveals how we can earn trust, repair relationships, and create collaborations that bring out the best in us.
ADAM GRANT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

There’s so much to love about Collabor(h)ate. Too many people are thrown into the deep end of teamwork and left to sink or swim. Sadly, many are sinking. Now we finally have a life buoy. This book is full of new insights about why work relationships are hard and what you can do to make them easier. Better yet, Mashek gives you everything you need to work your team through her brilliant collaboration workshop on your own. This book should be essential reading for every team.
LIANE DAVEY, New York Times best-selling author of You First and The Good Fight

Cooperation is one of the essential skills in the modern world. Collabor(h)ate offers the blueprint for helping people and organizations unlock their potential to work together.
JAY VAN BAVEL, co-author of The Power of Us

Dr. Deb Mashek was born to do this work. She is the relationship psychologist in your pocket, helping you deal with the messy business of people at work. She offers tips, tools, and conversation scripts based on the science of relationships. If you feel like collaborations are happening to you, Collabor(h)ate shows you how to shape your decisions, contributions, and outcomes proactively.
TAMMY HEERMANN, author of Reframe Your Story

Whether it’s working in teams, or on group projects in the classroom, everyone has a story about a dysfunctional collaboration. In Collabor(h)ate, Dr. Deb Mashek shows us how to minimize the stumbling blocks that occur when people work together, but more than that, she provides step-by-step plans for getting the most out of collaborative work. This book when people work together, but more than that, she provides step-by-step plans for getting the most out of collaborative work. This book will lead you to love collaboration and its many benefits.
RONALD RIGGIO, Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology, Claremont McKenna College

If you’re looking for a clear, concise, and action-oriented read on how to improve your collaborations at work, then this book is for you. Deb Mashek grounds her book in practical guidance on how to facilitate better collaborative relationships—while being honest about what makes these relationships hard and unappealing—making this book a how-to-guide you will want to turn to time and time again.
TESSA WEST, author of Jerks at Work

Collabor(h)ate teaches what business schools don’t: How to build powerful collaborative relationships to unlock the potential of individuals, teams, and organizations. This ultimate guide is a must-read for every executive ready to make collaboration a competitive advantage.
NAOMI BAGDONAS, Lecturer, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, co-author of Humor, Seriously

Collaboration is an essential skill in the workplace and beyond. But it isn’t always easy. In Collabor(h)ate, social psychologist Deb Mashek demystifies the complex relationships that sit at the heart of collaboration, providing research-informed strategies and tools for realizing the promise and potential of human connection.
SCOTT BARRY KAUFMAN, author of Transcend and host of The Psychology Podcast

I was gripped from the first line. Mashek’s the real thing. This book is intensely smart, informed with real science—and enormously useful. We humans evolved to live in collaborative groups. This book shows you how. It’s a wise and thought-provoking read.
HELEN FISHER, Chief Science Advisor to Match.com, author of Anatomy of Love

Remote work and social media have made collaborations more difficult and conflict-prone in recent years. It’s going to get much worse as Gen Z enters the workforce—a generation that was deprived of opportunities to learn collaboration naturally, in free play. This is why Collabor(h)ate is such an important book. Mashek combines psychological research, long experience, and playful writing to show you why collaboration is so vital to organizational and personal success, and how to do it better. This book will make you more valuable to employers, and it will also improve your relationships and well-being as you collaborate with selfish, prickly, egotistical (i.e., normal) human beings.
JON HAIDT, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, New York University—Stern School of Business, New York Times best-selling author of The Righteous Mind and co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind

FRONT MATERIAL

Preface

PART 1: FOUNDATIONS OF COLLABORATION

Chapter 1. What is collaboration and why is it so dang difficult?

What is “collaboration” anyway? | Mixed feelings about collaboration? You’re not alone | Putting the H in collabor(h)ate | Why is collaboration so dang difficult? | So why bother? | Why aren’t we taught how to do this? | Fear not: this learnable (and relationship theory can help) | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

Chapter 2. Two relationship dimensions

Your workplace relationships matter | Relationship quality: Is your collaboration relatively good or bad? | Interdependence: To what extent are you and your collaborators mutually dependent on each other? | The Mashek Matrix | Moving from collabor(h)ate to collaborGREAT | You, your team, your organization | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

Chapter 3. Improving relationship quality

Set clear expectations | Behave accordingly | Avoid telling yourself stories about others | Talk about yourself | Cultivate we-ness | Engage in novel and challenging work | Bring the donuts | Be responsive | The power of personality | Attachment anxiety and avoidance | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

Chapter 4. Changing interdependence

Frequency of interaction | Diversity of activities | Strength of influence: Tasks | Strength of influence: Consequences | Deciding how to decide | Maintaining boundaries | Individuals and their roles | Tools employed | Organizational values | Rituals and processes | Capacities and supports | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

PART 2: COLLABORATIVE CHALLENGES (AND HOW TO ADDRESS THEM)

Chapter 6. Diagnosing and remedying the 12 most common collaboration challenges

How to use this section | Dropped balls | Uneven workload | “My way or highway” | No capacity to give | Under preparation | Disengagement | Going rogue | Last minute contributions | Inconsistent contributions | Stealing credit | Dodging hard conversations | Mushy roles | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

Chapter 7. Special collaborative contexts

Cross-functional | Skip rank | Cross-cultural | Inter-generational | Other power dynamics | Difficult personalities | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

Chapter 8. When to get the heck out of there

4 horsemen of the apocalypse | Process loss vs. sudden death | Chaos and toxicity | Teams in crisis | Should I stay or should I go? | The things you cannot change | Don’t be a doormat | Growth after breakup | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

PART 3: LIVING IN A WORLD OF COLLBORGREAT

Chapter 9. Further developing your collaboration chops: Professional development for you and your team

Understanding the impact of your behaviors | Finding the courage to change | Options and interventions for you as an individual | Options and interventions for your team and organization | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

Chapter 10. Hey, you’re collaborGREAT!

Taking the H out of collabor(h)ate | Choosing which stone soups to contribute to | Identifying, vetting, and committing to collaborators | Learning to say “yes” vs knowing when to say “no” | How to be in the room where it happens | Helping others level up | It takes a village | Here’s the point | Questions for reflection and integration

Chapter 11. The Collaborators’ Vow

BACKEND MATERIAL

Bonus chapter: Collaboration in friendships, family, community, and life

References

Acknowledgements

FORMAT / ISBN / PUBLICATION DATE / RRP

Paperback / 9781788603829 / January 24, 2023 / £16.99

Ebook / 9781788603843 / January 23, 2023 / £9.99

Paperback and eBook Bundle / £19.49

Deb Mashek PhD

Dr. Deb Mashek, PhD is an experienced professor, higher education administrator, and national nonprofit executive. Named one of the Top 35 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, she has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Hechinger Report, Inside Higher Ed, Fortune, Reason, Business Week, University Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, and The Hill. She writes regularly for Psychology Today.

Previously Full Professor of Social Psychology at Harvey Mudd College, Deb served as the college’s Associate Dean for Faculty Development and as the founding Director of the Claremont College’s Office of Consortial Academic Collaboration. She served as the inaugural Executive Director of Heterodox Academy, a national nonprofit advancing constructive disagreement on college campuses. Having garnered over $3 million in grant funding to support collaborative projects, Deb serves on the board of BridgeUSA, is a Senior Fellow at Claremont Graduate University, and teaches at Dennison Edge, a “high-touch learning environment where industry experts help liberal arts students and recent graduates acquire the skills and knowledge to launch into, pivot toward, or accelerate their preferred career.”

Deb is the founder of Myco Consulting LLC, where she speaks, advises, and facilitates workshops on applying relationship science to help teams build healthy and effective collaborations so that they can accomplish ambitious goals. A member of both the Association for Collaborative Leadership and the International Coaching Federation, Deb has been an invited speaker on collaboration and viewpoint diversity at leading organizations including the United Nations, the American Psychological Association, the Council of Independent Colleges, and the Association of American Colleges & Universities.

Originally from North Platte, NE, Deb lives in Staten Island, NY with her son.