How often do you think about or have conversations about the silos and their effects on productivity, morale, the bottom line/s at your work place.
It might not get attention very often simply because you’re busy get on with the work at hand, in your silo. That’s not a slight, it’s simply how it is.
Like a real silo, as the grain goes in the top, and the pressure forces the grain to flow through to the bottom and comes out at the bottom. At work, information, direction, allocation of resources comes in from the top and the work flows through to the operational ranks.
A silo affect, as you know, causes communication breakdowns, resource duplication, hinders productivity and can trigger narrow thinking.
When engaged to work with management teams, the desire to break down silos comes up a lot … A LOT!
The reality I find is that due to the culture of the organisation and the very nature of how work is structured … a person is employed to do a specific range of work … the silos are built and very difficult to break down.
So rather than spending valuable and very limited time and effort trying to break down the silos that hardly ever crack or budge, build bigger doors for people to move easily between and through silos!
📌 Encourage all leaders to link the work to the shared vision.
📌 Encourage cross team rotations and opportunities (aka, don’t talent hoard).
📌 Empower collaboration over competition.
📌 Have more open team and department meetings.
📌 Have career conversations that encourage sideways movements.
📌 Use cross-functional teams where relevant and don’t just set them up and disappear, follow up and check in on their progress.
Do you have silo’s at your workplace, and how do they effect your business?
I’d love to know your thoughts
I appreciate you
