Why do silos exist within corporations? The metaphor itself conjures a tall vertical structure where something valuable is stored, much like information that is held closely in top-down hierarchical organizations. In addition to being a practical result of scale, the insular and vertical nature of a silo within organizations can have positive results, such as the ability to create accountability. Additionally, creating a culture where information flows on a “need to know” basis can feel more efficient – particularly in the short-term when sharing information often invites collaboration. Yet, this approach misses that collaborative decisions enable better decisions and speed up implementation and adoption.
The problem, as Neil Smith sees it in To Build Your Business, Smash Your Silos, is, “Managers tend to look up and down only within their own silos—never looking around or across—so all they see, and tend to think about, is their own silo. They don’t know what is happening elsewhere in the organization or how their actions impact other areas. They act primarily in the interest of their own silo.”
This last piece is important. Management textbooks will tell you that acting in the interest of their own silo is a result of misalignment of incentives. In practice, it seems that our own human psychological tendencies and instincts drive this behavior, as much, if not more than incentives such money. Some researchers see silos as a function of the limits of our human brains to feel deep trust and loyalty. British Anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggests there are limits to the human capacity to maintain strong social bonds – with 150 people being the proposed number where we reach our maximum capacity. As organizations continue to scale, the implication is that employees feel connected to a small internal group, but do not necessarily trust or bond with the whole organization. Rather than operating as a unified team, companies can find themselves mediating or being slowed down by internal warfare – continuously hampered by an “us vs. them” mindset.
To increase collaboration and information-sharing, start with the following:
Create and Reinforce a Shared Purpose – Align your teams with an inspiring Mission, Vision, and Values that gets to the heart of why your organization exists.
Embrace Transparency – Flip “need to know” around, normalize sharing, and assume everyone will benefit from access to information unless there is a compelling case otherwise.
Empower Decision-Making – Distributed decision-making goes hand-in-hand with sharing information. Free your leaders to focus on the big strategic questions; focusing on the what, not the how.
Build “The Team of Us” – Banish “us vs. them” language and encourage your people to participating in cross-functional teams that build diverse connective tissue throughout your organization.
Listen to Your People – Create a safe environment for honest feedback and proactively seek your employees’ input. Don’t forget to reflect back what you heard and take actions that are responsive to what was expressed.
Lead with Trust – Hire great people and trust them. People thrive on trust and live into your expectations. To take a famous quote from Henry Ford in a different direction than was necessarily intended, when it comes to trust: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” Check out Benjamin Zander’s powerful talk “How to give an A,” to see what happens when you believe the best in people.
In short, silos within organizations arise from a complex mix of organizational structure, leadership and cultural values, and human evolution and psychology. Therefore, if you want to create meaningful change in your organization’s tendencies around communication and collaboration, you need to take a multi-pronged approach and be prepared to invest for the long-run. Much like diets, this is about lifestyle change and there is no quick fix.
