The mere mention of keeping up with overflowing email, constant meetings, and time-sucking conference calls makes many of us groan and roll our eyes. How did we all get so busy? A major culprit is the sharp rise in cross-functional collaboration over the past several years.

 Today, it’s often not enough to just put your head down and work in one department for one boss. Demands can come at you daily from other functional areas of the company—marketing, R&D, finance—sometimes from colleagues you barely know, both within the United States and overseas in other time zones. And if you work in an open-plan office, your colleagues will often walk around starting impromptu discussions (when it’s convenient for them, not necessarily you). It can be overwhelming.

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