Remember the song, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die?” Well, when it comes to silos in business, I believe that everybody talks about doing something about them, but nobody wants to interfere with boundaries. Tampering with territorial boundaries is fraught with danger. Yet, if service delivery and its subsequent outcome of customer experience, are to be delivered to the customer’s delight, territorial tampering should not be off-limits.
Firstly, let’s define silos within the context of business operations. When a department or business unit fails to engage in efficient vertical and horizontal collaboration along the internal value chain of operations, it is deemed a silo. In other words, it’s not a good internal business partner that functions well with its other internal partners.
In almost every transformation intervention I lead as a consultant, this “silo” effect is one of the most systemic restraints that I encounter.
When a department or business unit fails to engage in efficient vertical and horizontal collaboration along the internal value chain of operations, it is deemed a silo.
While some siloed operations are productive, generally, silos pose both an operational and a cultural problem for a business. Operationally, the internal value chain is weakened because collaboration is discontinuous and asynchronous, whilst culturally, teams suffer from the kind of insularity that leads to soft warfare. Both problems provoke strife within the business.
Silo behaviour has its roots in divisiveness, insularity and adversity. Depending on how much these counter-productive agents are tolerated, the wheels of commerce can really slow to a crawl.
Silo management is an engineering matter. More specifically, a matter of engineering the blending of customer and commercial journeys. A business cannot have great customer and business outcomes if these two journeys are not properly blended.
In almost every transformation intervention I lead as a consultant, this “silo” effect is one of the most systemic restraints that I encounter.
I am a proponent of preventative versus curative action. Silos should not be allowed to take root in a business in the first place. But, given their prevalence, we need to work on applying some remediation measures that create “connected” businesses.
Let me mention here, in case you were wondering, that this process of silo deconstruction is a marathon and not a sprint.
Deconstruction should start with an action to communicate to employees that, going forward, all departments will be “connected” to a single, intentional and noble vision of the business. In a healthcare institution, this essence would be, “to save lives.” In an investment institution, the essence may be, “to enable financial fluidity.” Or, in a patisserie, it may be, “the most artisanal experience.” Every business should have a well-crafted essence statement.
Leaders will need to introduce a new mentality, one that celebrates neuro-divergent thinking, creative ideation and the willingness to create integrated solutions that intersect multiple departments.
Having established this shared view of the business, it’s now important to connect departments to a “shared effort” system that will support this new view. One of the reasons why silos persist is because there’s a high tolerance for their existence. In a low-tolerance environment, where departments are mandated to find efficient ways of collaborating with their internal value partners and this is juxtaposed with a system of sanctions and rewards, business and service outcomes improve.
What about the leaders and their contribution to dismantling silos? Well, a new suite of leadership practices will be needed to attack this problem. Leaders will need to be both rewiring experts, as well as connectors.
As rewiring experts, leaders will need to introduce a new mentality, one that celebrates neuro-divergent thinking, creative ideation and the willingness to create integrated solutions that intersect multiple departments. As connectors, leaders will use special “connectivity” tools to build cross-departmental relationships and to integrate diverse teams that excel at the collaboration that drives service excellence.
As connectors, leaders will use special “connectivity” tools to build cross-departmental relationships and to integrate diverse teams that excel at the collaboration that drives service excellence.
Leaders will possess the unique ability to eradicate the practice of functional discrimination, where some departments are treated like first-class and others, like second-class citizens. A scenario that creates demotivated departments. Because of how closely departmental self-esteem is linked to conferred corporate respect, all departments will be allowed an equal share-of-voice in the ecosystem, (some department heads will not be happy with this suggestion).
One more comment about this new generation of leaders. They will be leading mostly from their strengths and less from their flaws. A refreshing change from what now seems to be the norm.
Finally, let me say a word about the pivotal role of culture in this process. Typically, in business transitions, culture either supports the status quo, or helps to reset and anchor a new way of life.
Needless, to say, during the shape shifting transition, a culture of collaboration will be a valuable lever in reconfiguring a business from being silo oriented, to becoming a fluid network of connected business units.