THE SYNERGISTS

As we emerge from 2020 and enter the uncharted territory of 2021 and beyond, our ability to collaborate is in a state of crisis and employee satisfaction is at an all-time low. In 15 years of studying workplace dynamics as a behavioral scientist, Dr. Francesco Gino has focused closely on sustained collaborations in a wide range of industries and contexts. On the surface, most companies had similar work policies, hierarchies, and core values, but why had only a few organizations cracked the code on collaboration? 

What Gino’s research has shown is that collaboration fails when it is imposed from above rather than nourished from below. As varied as they are, most strategies involve manipulating workers—or trying to—in ways that are obvious (and even insulting) to the workers and that fail to change their fundamental outlook.

The deeper Gino looked, she eventually realized that it wasn’t a single quality in individuals that allowed them to bring success to collaborations—it was a set of five core skills, all rooted in human psychology: joy, receptivity, flexing, brokering, resetting. 

In The Synergists, Gino will show just how these set of five skills contribute to successful collaboration at the individual and team levels. Filled with colorful and insightful stories, The Synergists will do for collaboration what her last book Rebel Talent did for the value of rulebreakers, and will include resources for how to implement the ideas inside.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The youngest woman to become a tenured Full Professor at Harvard Business School, Francesca Gino is an award-winning expert on the psychology of organizations and author of REBEL TALENT: Why It Pays to Break the Rules in Work and Life (Day Street). She has a PhD in Economics and Management from Harvard where she has served on faculty since 2004.