We all know that silos are inefficient. They’re focused on their own goals, priorities and interests. They keep people from working cross-functionally, keep resources to themselves.
And let’s not even start with politics.
Let’s face it – this ubiquitous problem is preventing the modern organization from competing with more nimble and agile players.
The problem is that the solution to breaking down these silos is no solution at all – the dreaded restructure. It might work in the short term, but it’s almost certainly guaranteed to reform because the operating model of the organization enables them in the first place.
One client that we worked with had an organization-wide restructuring (30K employees) and the goal was to decentralize business units and centralize shared functions. But as soon as those business units were separated, in crept new silos in the shared, centralized functions.
In short, restructuring is simply an exercise in silo shuffling.
What to do about Silos?
If your organization is hierarchical, you have silos. In fact, it’s the hierarchy itself that creates these silos in the first place. So if you want to break them down, it makes sense to focus on the horizontal dimension of your business instead of lines of authority drawn in the org chart.
It sounds simple, but let me assure you, it is not. It requires a huge mindset shift from leaders because authority doesn’t play a role in the hierarchy. There’s no ownership of resources and thus—no silos.
These new skills can be trained, but it’s going depend on how stuck in command-and-control the leaders are as to what they’re going to welcome in training.
So let’s start with what’s actually going on, so you know what your leaders might be ready for (or not).
The org chart is not your friend
If your leaders really want to operate differently (they’re innovative, they’re servant leaders, etc) then you can start at the top. That’s, of course, the ideal situation—they’re trying to do the right thing.
In this case, senior leaders need to understand why managing in the hierarchy isn’t working and is the fundamental cause of silos.
Vertical management through the hierarchy is so ingrained that it takes some time for the negative effects of that approach to soak in and for leaders to be open to learning a new way.
Authority is non-existent in the horizontal
Now that leaders are aware that the horizontal exists, you need to train them with new skills.
Plan on them being resistant. It’s a tough mindset shift. They’ve been trained in directive leadership since the dawn of their careers and they may not be ready to let go of the power they have (especially when they’ve spent their careers collecting direct reports in the first place).
But ultimately, senior leaders must drive this change if the organization is going to be successful.
Indications of motivation could be something like “if we do something different, we may completely fail as an organization.”
But if you find yourself in an organization where the leaders are resistant to change (and there’s a lot of you), fret not.
There is a path.
Bottom-Up Transformation
It’s "start a movement" time—and the millennials in your organization will help you. They’ve already started this transformation in a myriad of ways (not just companies).
Teach your next generation of leaders on how to lead horizontally.
If you look at what horizontal leadership really means, it’s all about building high-performing teams from a variety of stakeholders from various silos.
People come together in these teams in projects or initiatives. Target people that lead teams first!
And we’re not talking about project management here. In short, project management is old school and directive in nature. Leaders in today’s organization need to learn how to lead project teams collaboratively, which requires a whole new set of skills—those can be translated into the vertical as they’re careers grow.
Of course, this approach won’t have an immediate silo smashing effect, but as more and more leaders are trained with these new collaborative skills, the cracks will grow and eventually the silos come down.
The entire organization will be more collaborative, and the workforce will be more engaged and more agile as it will be easier to shift direction without having to deal with silo politics.
Assessing the commitment level from senior leaders
If they’re ready, fantastic! Find training that will move them along the road to shifting from a vertical orientation to a horizontal one.
If they aren’t, start at the bottom, train the next generation of leaders and begin the process of pulling down those silos and replacing them with high-performing teams.