Break one Silo at a time

Every organization aims to “break the silos”. Numerous leadership changes and organization restructuring projects are aimed at hiring leaders and creating structures that create ownership, and accountability, resulting in a utopian well-oiled agile machine where we all love collaboration.

Each one of us, with our independent intellect, demands a purpose. We want to drive towards a lofty goal but may hate confrontation. Sometimes we don’t know how to achieve our outcomes and sometimes we do not want to speak up to absurdities around us for fear of resulting outcomes. We retreat to our island, a place of professional comfort. Silos start with the single individual, their internal conversations manifesting as their behavior towards others and the domino effect it has on their team, their network, and the larger org. culture.

Leaders want to decimate these silos and set us free to unlock our full potential, however, they often do not create a safe space to do so. It is also important for leadership to listen to the undercurrent of whispers around our virtual and real coffee machines.

“I don’t trust him/them.”

“I don’t know what the leaders want.”

“We are making a catastrophic decision. Why can they not see what I see?”

Such coffee chats end up…

…creating disorientation

…lack of trust

…demean the credibility of the leadership but also of the individual

…creates a sense of fake alignment in meetings and mutiny later

…lack of empathy and feeling of otherness

There is an onus on the individual and leaders to self-reflect and break the silos one at a time...