Breaking through that Silo mentality!

My facilitation team and I are always struck by 1 phenomenon at our teambuilding programmes: that participants when placed into new groups, show great energy in competing with other groups, but often fail to find the space for collaboration across groups. This has happened time and again, even when the activities that we have designed gives prominent place to collaborative interactions.

I put it down to the 'Silo Mentality', which kicks in the moment we blend our interests and goals with the immediate group which we are put into. Borrowing from Bruce Tuckman's Life-Cycle of a Team, I'd say that the Silo Mentality emerges during the Norming stage.

This occurs for 3 reasons:
1. When we come into a group, we begin re-aligning to the new identity, eg establishing new relationships and work patterns. Reading other members of the group, building rapport with them, and forging alliances will be the main preoccupations at this point.

2. Simultaneously, we are also balancing what our individual identity still requires eg. our own needs that we are unwilling or unable to give up. The 'mental juggling' of these 2 concerns leaves little room for group members to consider the possibility of collaboration with other groups.

3. People just want to get along after the Storming stage. Most people are fearful of conflict and after the myriad of 'Storms' just ended, group members would be focusing their efforts on putting the group on an even keel.

If the 'Silos' are not broken through, individual groups will still likely achieve their mission goals. This success extends to political turf battles between departments and units within the same organisation. Imagine if line operations, marketing and finance work so well independently, that there is no synergy between them. The negative impact on the company's bottomline, morale, effectiveness and mission goals will no doubt be significant.

However, all is not lost. There are 3 things leaders can do to break the Silo mentality.
Firstly, team leaders should use integrative metaphors to frame the need for team cohesion, against the backdrop of the larger organisational needs. In building team unity and loyalty, team leaders should be wary of the tendency of teams to turn into 'factions', because leaders have been prone to paint other teams or units as the 'enemy'. Instead, team leaders can use metaphors such as 'building blocks" and "ecosystem" to describe the relationships that their teams share with others in the organisation.

Secondly, team leaders play the role of interpreter-mediator between other units and their team. While the workteam is focused on its core mission, it is remains the responsibility of team leaders to interpret organisational goals for the team. The translation of these goals into team objectives requires team leaders to actively mediate between competing and at times, paradoxical concerns. Team leaders should not be 'parochial' in keeping their best team members, but instead send their best team members to join cross-functional teams and task forces.

Thirdly, senior management should engage actively in re-shaping organisational culture to build a ground that is receptive and fertile for collaborative practices across work teams and units. Pro-collaboration attitudes and practices can be promoted organisation-wide, for instance by:

• changing the reward structures to reward task force work,
• creating opportunities for cross-functional deployment for team leaders and executives to expose them to the larger organisational needs and perspectives,
• developing training programmes to promote appreciation of diversity and difference, and
  
• developing an induction package for all new employees to recognise the importance placed on collaboration.

Agricultural silos are built to protect grain from elements of weather and pests. They serve that function well. Yet, in organisational and team life, a 'silo mentallity' prevents collaboration from taking root. Without a culture of collaboration, the paradox of team success amidst organisational failure will result.

Noel
Resident Philosopher
(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)