As a seasoned IT professional with eighteen years of experience in the corporate and consultancy world. I have worked with many diverse teams and individuals within the different business units in small and large companies.
While no two companies are ever the same, I have been able to talk with other professionals on projects that failed or had major issues due to the silo effect. During these frank and candid conversations, I have been fortunate and learned from their collective wisdom.
The symptoms of the silo effect can manifest in many ways, projects that run over budget, missed go-live deadlines, scope creep or failed and abandoned due lost impetus or funding.
Whether you find yourself working on projects within small or a multinational company, we still find ourselves collaborating with a few dedicated people and their teams.
We find these individuals and their teams dedicated, hardworking and knowledgeable in their areas of expertise. Yet like most people within a company, they find themselves siloed in their day-to-day operational tasks.
Siloed Structure Within Business Units
I would never suggest that having field-specific skills and expertise such as accounting, marketing or an IT department is detrimental in any way. To the contrary, this is important for the operational needs of a company to succeed.
Where this departmental siloed approach can become a disadvantage is during the many stages of the technology-based project. When team collaboration is key to implementing new technology or systems within a company’s IT environment.
A project generally begins within a specific business unit, accounting, marketing and creative to name a few. They have identified a need to implement some new technology, system or process to improve productivity or performance.
Generally projects that fail or have major issue start with this common scenario. The driving business unit does not bring other departments into a project until after the Request For Work (RFW) and Request For Proposal (RFP) phases have completed, contracts signed and they are ready to begin.
In performing these three simple steps we have planted first seeds of the silo effect. They can define how projects will progress, deadlines met, budgets kept and if the project itself can succeed.
To help ensure that all new projects succeed, a company needs to break down the organizational communication barriers. The goal is not to destroy the departmental silos themselves, but to eliminate the problems these cause, this is the critical distinction.
Managers can start off by believing that dismantling all silos is the answer to solving all their company’s problems. This is far from the truth, as the structures these silos bring is important in creating the needed accountability and responsibility within their organization.
Successful managers know that collaboration, cooperation and communication are the main three keys to working across departmental silos. These three important triangle components are the golden elements needed to break down an organization’s silo barriers.
It is key to remember that breaking these barriers down isn’t about finger pointing or proving one department is correct while others are wrong. Actually, it is natural that the manager of these departmental silos believes their ideas, goals and priorities are best for a company over others.
Occasionally companies need review how all departments talk to each other, and look for holistic approaches to improving communications. As humans, we are all programmed to want to succeed within our own sandpit, something forgetting the bigger world we work in.
Usually, a manager or team members have specific work areas, their own personal silo, and so communications become introverted and stay within their own small group.
Bridging Corporate Silos
To help reduce the silo effect, an organization should implement these simple steps to ensure projects have a higher rate of success and a healthier open corporate culture.
Remember the three C’s to help you and your co-workers succeed:
- Collaboration
- Cooperation
- Communication
A successful company, its management, and employees need to work together to put in place measures to ensure that major business initiatives decided within a vacuum are no-longer permitted, and ensure all departments learn to talk and listen to each other.
To cultivate success we all need to understand our organizational siloing, identify the steps required to move beyond its barriers. Identifying each business teams priorities and projects, and asking this one question, do others within your company know of them?
And if the answer is no, you have taken the first major step to breaking down your corporate silos. To Communicate is to enable an open transfer of knowledge, to understand each department’s challenge and goals and ensure that we all succeed in a healthy corporate environment.