Even in organizations in which these factors are at play, some people are working effectively across disciplines. What these people have figured out is that perseverance pays off. Once they gain some experience with collaboration and develop a cadre of experts whose competence and character they can rely on, the risks decrease, as do the coordination costs. As they learn the jargon, technical approaches, and assumptions of other disciplines and figure out how to share revenue and less tangible rewards (like credit for the outcome or airtime for a subsequent client pitch), they build trust and can work with peers more quickly and with less tension.
Certain strategies can help professionals reap the benefits of collaboration sooner. First, it matters whom you collaborate with. In my research I found that establishing your credentials with a rainmaker or other well-connected colleague who has influence in the firm is simply the most powerful way to enhance your own reputation. And the financial benefits from such a relationship, which come from referrals, build up significantly over the years.
But how can you get yourself onto a project with high-status colleagues? Chris, a partner in the New York office of a global law firm, uses the following tactic: From discussions with colleagues or articles in the legal press, she gleans ideas for how her expertise in data privacy might be useful to various kinds of corporate clients. She then researches companies that her firm already serves and writes a one-page memo to a client relationship partner outlining how her expertise could help that particular client solve a particular problem. Chris admits that the effort takes a lot of time, and not all her colleagues are receptive to what they see as self-promotion. But enough of them have welcomed the offer that she has participated in multiple joint pitches for new work and has established a couple of ongoing relationships with other partners.
Another way to work with influential colleagues is to invite them onto your own client projects. Matthias, a veteran consulting partner, transferred from a boutique telecommunications firm to a generalist firm so he could apply his operations expertise to a wider array of clients. Soon after joining the new firm, he identified three partners who were seen as prime players in other practice groups and invited each to lunch. He then spent hours conducting due diligence—reading their public white papers and the documents they had contributed to the firm’s knowledge management system, reading up on their clients, and talking to partners in his own practice who’d worked with them. Within his first year, Matthias found openings to hold joint meetings at his client with each of those partners; one meeting led to a small but promising stream of work. The three partners grew to appreciate Matthias’s deep expertise, his client-handling skills, and his intention to stay at the firm and build a thriving business there. Over time, those partners began telling others of their impressions of him, creating opportunities for him on client work across a range of industries. The initial trick, Matthias explained, was to learn enough of the domain expertise of other partners to be able to identify opportunities for them with his own clients and then to start discussions about those opportunities.
You might get high-status partners to work with you on the basis of your knowledge and expertise, but getting them to keep working with you hinges on their experience of you as a team player. None of this is rocket science, but about half the complaints I heard in my interviews would have been eliminated if professionals had followed these rules: