Better Collaboration Begins with Breaking the Silo Mentality in the Organization

Natural Cause of Silo Mentality

​In some respects, the problems of the silo mentality hinder the operation of an organization resemble dental plaque problems where it does not happen overnight, and the buildup gaps between each department grow and eventually form a rigid wall that leads to instability of the organization. Similar to the teeth's condition, plague is not preventable, but if it’s regularly removed, it can prevent gum disease and loss of teeth.  In a corporate environment, it is a natural progression that each department grows to have its goals, priorities, and tools as it matures.  But this maturity often leads to silo mentality when each department becomes more self-centered.  It’s making the decision based on self-interest and not on the wellness of the organization. As a result, the efforts in coordinating to share information and tools be between groups or departments can be discouraging and inefficient.

​The Danger of the Silos

​During working in various corporations for the past years, I've witnessed numerous successful executions and inherent failures.  In many occasions, the lack of awareness of the silo mentality is often the cause of the downfall of the project or the organization and the success often accompanied with effective methods of removing the gap between departments.  It is quite detrimental if you are not aware of this type of problem existed since it can be pervasive in every business process and just like the symptoms of illness, you only see the effects when they come to the surface and unable to find the solution that targets the primary cause of the problem.

​The Blame Game

​The blame game and endless spiral of internal conflicts can lead the entire organization to nowhere and standstill.  I've seen a big organization that could not break its gridlocks and standstill for years and could not make a breakthrough from it.  While we do not like to play the blame game and finger pointing, but the key to having a high-performance team without the silo mentality is held by the top executives in the organization.  Only they can solve the chronic organizational problems and lead everyone to overcome resistance to change and by exerting the power to form a unifying organization that achieving common organizational goals.  

​How to Break the Barriers

​I often encourage youngsters by telling them the reasons to go to schools.  I think that attending school is for your benefits, it is a place to make mistakes and to exercise your brain muscle because you are going to need it when you are in the real world.  No matter what you are majoring in, treat it as a reference point to leap from and not the destination of your lives.  Similarly, I often like to tell my subordinates that working in a job is not just for making a living for yourself, it's about learning more about yourself when you interact with others and creating values for yourself.  It's what and how you do determine yourself and not how much you make.  In a similar fashion, any organization wants to create an efficient and high-performance team should let everyone participate in achieving the common goals together and live in a larger story than our own.  This is a proven concept called Challenge Intelligence, which was discovered in the 1960s.  In 1962, President John F. Kennedy had an opportunity to visit the NASA space center, and noticed a janitor carrying a broom, and asked him, "What are you doing?"  To most people, the role of janitor was just cleaning the building, but his simple answer had helped solve one of the most complex problems in the corporate world and was contributing to making history.  He said, "Well, Mr. President. I'm helping put a man on the moon."  It's so true that no matter how large or small your role, you are contributing to the larger story unfolding within your life.  It's like any parts of your body; they work in synergy. Finding the meaning of the organization is like a spiritual experience or it's like the soul of the body.  Endless internal conflicts and frictions suddenly fade away as it’s been replacing with a higher purpose.  And when your entire team embraced and shared a larger than the personal goal, incredible things happen.
 
Besides having a unified vision, the tasks of steering the ship to a new coordinate and making a real transformation corporate-wide can be quite challenging.  Techniques like the Challenge Maps have been used to identify the critical gaps exist in departments and map out the actual steps needed to move forward.  By having a clear plan and workable deliverable, solving chronic organization problem is a reality when you see the whole organization align to the right direction progressively.  When the direction becomes clearer, meetings become much more productive and working together becomes a top priority of its own.
 
For smaller organizations that do not have their IT resources, another way is to employ IT experts who have expertises in the areas of process improvement and systems thinking and develop joined-up solutions between departments and fill the gaps on a regular basis.  These software developers should have extensive knowledge about business processes and have the ability to lead the direction of improvement, rather than just taking requirements and ideas from the stakeholders directly.  However, just like any other functional units in the organization, as a natural progression, silos will form within the IT team as well between the Development and IT Operations groups. 
 
In the recent years, DevOps, an IT movement or practice, tries to solve this particular issue by creating a culture that partners developers with operations staff together to ensure the software delivered with minimal problems where all members in DevOps are willing to support the idea of sharing and working together.  So it is essentially a practice that aims at collaboration and communication of both software developers and other IT professionals.

​Conclusion

​The causality of the silos started with people, and it is logical to assume that people have the key to resolving the problem as well.  By having a unified vision and working toward a common goal, rather than just for a particular department, they are the early steps of tearing down the silos.  The continuous efforts of managers to invest time in understanding the individuals’ needs and words of encouragement are the real engines that drive everyone to move forward.  Establishing goals and measuring the effectiveness of leadership are also necessary for the department heads. Leading a thriving and productive team from the top management team is critical to keep the momentum going.  A great leadership begins when the individuals understand their bigger roles and leaders become entirely depending on and in trust with the people.  There is nothing stronger than having a laser focus force that enables any organization to accomplish anything it desires.