Breaking Down Silos: A Q&A with John Kotter

What are some risks silos pose to an organization?

Silos can occur in global corporations or start-up ventures with 15 employees or more. And no matter the size, they are detrimental to an organization’s ability to succeed in a rapidly changing world. It is also important to note that silos can be vertical or horizontal. Individual units can have high barriers between them or senior leadership can be completely isolated from lower management levels.

A siloed organization cannot act quickly on opportunities that arise in a fast-paced business landscape, nor is it able to make productive decisions about how to change in order to seize these opportunities.

Consider the following consequences of organizational silos:

Destroy Trust: People who spend significant time in a single department or division often develop loyalty to their immediate group and distrust in the motives of others, even if they are in the same firm. Product development may view sales with suspicion, a global subsidiary looks at the American parent with great disdain, and so on. Without trust, you cannot create teamwork across an organization, and without a team that moves quickly, organizations fall behind their competitors.

Cut off Communication: Silos cut off clear communication between different business units or managerial levels. People can fall easily into only communicating with those directly around them or those who are at the same level in the organization. When there is little or unclear communication between groups, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. As a leader, you fall out of touch with employee sentiment, lose track of important resources at your fingertips and don’t hear crucial feedback.

Foster Complacency: In an organization where people in different divisions have little contact with one another, it is easy to become inwardly focused and complacent with the status quo. It will cause them to miss new opportunities and hazards coming from competitors or customers and changes in the regulatory environment.

For example, if R&D has little communication with sales, research employees will never know end customers’ changing preferences, and your organization could lose out to another competitor that meets customer needs better and faster.

How can you recognize when silos are forming in your organization?

There are several signs.

• First, are you surprised to hear about projects taking place in other divisions? Are these projects well underway, without your ever knowing about them?
• Second, do you communicate infrequently with other leaders around the organization?
• Finally, have you been championing an opportunity or project for a while, and a large subset of the organization doesn’t know about it or understand why you are pursuing it?

Ask yourself these questions. If you are finding the answers are yes, there is a good chance that silos are present in your organization.