A Leader’s Approach to Busting Silos

I still remember the response: “No, that’s not possible Richard.”

“What do you mean not possible?” I responded with incredulity.

I was working as a transformation consultant.

I’d requested a meeting between “Jack”, the CFO and “Elizabeth”, the IT Director.

I wanted to encourage better cross-functional working.

But Jack and Elizabeth couldn’t even be in the same room. The animosity was that deep.

It wasn’t just the personal enmity. Other factors played in. But it had led to Finance and IT having the most silo-ed of silo-ed working relationships imaginable.

Strategically developed silos can be a source of new thinking.

However, in general, they are the bane of large and even medium-sized organisations.

The issue with silos

• Duplicated efforts => hurting the bottom line.
• Conflicting priorities => slowing down decisive making.
• Limited collaboration => stifling innovation.

They also lead to inconsistent customer experiences. And employees in silos leave as they can’t see the bigger picture for their work.

But to bust silos, the starting place isn’t policy, data, process or structure.

It’s the Covert Conversations.

These are the secretly held viewpoints within and between teams. They shape and sustain how people see themselves, others, and the organisation.

The Covert Conversation is self-validating for the silo and invalidating of everyone else. It can be negative (victim narrative), or positive (hero narrative).

Busting silos

To bust silos, we must address these Covert Conversations.

Here’s how to approach it:

• Surface what teams really think about each other.
• Acknowledge the costs of continued silo-ed working.
• Create a dialogue that fosters a compelling, collaborative future.

In essence: start with opening up and gaining alignment, then work on structural factors.

If you’d like to learn more about how our leadership development approaches can help you bust silos in your organisation, we’d love to talk to you.

Book a call with us here.