How to Identify and Manage Organization Silos?

Do owners feel like there’s too much waste in the company? Are different teams just spinning their wheels, working on the same tasks without collaborating? However, if they don’t manage silos, they can slow their organization’s growth. If any business has multiple departments and teams, it may probably already have silos that need to be managed to improve employee engagement and overall performance. 

Wish to understand what organizational silos are? Read this article carefully to identify silos and learn how to manage them.

What are Organizational Silos?

Stovepipe organizations are also referred to as organizational silos, where communication and information sharing are not easy. It is a metaphor for the way that groups of people can become isolated from other groups within an organization, making it difficult for valuable ideas to be shared across the organization. This results in missed opportunities to collaborate and work better.

The solution is to divide the company into self-contained units (silos) based on function or product area; but with open bottoms, so each unit could exchange ideas with any other unit in the company. Each silo should be headed by someone who has overall responsibility for it.

What Causes Organization Silos?

Organization silos can be caused by several factors, but they often stem from departmentalization. This can happen when departments are created to solve specific problems in the company, such as design or production. However, this may limit the information flow within the company and doesn’t allow for collaboration between departments. 

• Employees may tend to work on their own tasks with little interaction outside of their own departments.
• Poses barriers to internal communication
• Lack of focus on the company’s vision
• Lack of proper management and knowledge
• May lead to fewer meetings and interactions between employees
• Lack of cross-department work

According to the dimensiondata CX benchmark report, only 33% of customer experience practitioners claim to be able to work cooperatively with different departments to improve customer experiences. In a siloed contact center, 15% of an agent’s time is spent getting customer information. 

Source: Aberdeen, The ROI of Uniting Unified Communications and Contact Center

Drawbacks of Organization Silos

Organizational silos are a common occurrence when businesses start growing. When a business is small, this may not seem like an issue, but as the business grows, it can lead to certain inefficiencies.

1. Duplication in effort and diminished innovation: When multiple teams of people are trying to solve a problem, they may come up with two very different solutions that need to be developed and tested. And because these departments usually only communicate through meetings or emails, there’s no way of knowing if the other team has already found a solution to their problem or tried a new approach.

2. Lack of team alignment: As mentioned earlier, because of the lack of communication between departments, some problems may go unsolved for much longer than necessary. Imagine all the time wasted!

3. Employee disenfranchisement: Employees feel disengaged from the organization because of how disconnected their jobs are from those around them. They don’t know what other teams’ goals are, what progress is being made toward reaching those goals, and how they fit into achieving company goals.

5 Ways To Identify Organizational Silos

Organization silos are groups of people in an organization who work together but don’t often communicate with each other. They can be a company’s biggest asset or its greatest liability. The goal is to find out where they are, how they’re affecting their company culture, and what they need to do about it.

1. Internal unfamiliarity: This is when one group feels like they know nothing about another department because there isn’t any communication between them. If employees or colleagues do not tend to know one another by name, this may indicate an issue. Name familiarity should not be stressed for all employees but it is important for the relationship-driven businesses of small and medium-sized enterprises.
2. Subgroups: This happens when two departments have different goals for the future of the business, which leads to tensions between them. For example, Marketing wants to sell more products while Sales wants customers to make more purchases. With the final goal being the same, both sides need to be working in tandem.
3. Us vs them mentalities: These types of organizational silos happen when members feel as if their personal success comes at the expense of other team members. In many cases, these types of divisions exist because people try to accomplish goals on their own instead of asking for help or pitching in.
4. Dependency trap: Organizational silos form within departments when employees don’t share information with each other. These walls arise because someone within the division is handling certain tasks alone without input from anyone else.

How to Manage Organizational Silos

Organizational silos are barriers that prevent employees from collaborating with other departments. To break down organizational silos, a manager or owner can consider these points:

1. Promote a shared vision: It’s important for all team members to feel like they’re part of the same company. Create initiatives like joint projects where team members from different teams work together on one common goal.

2 Communicate as a team: Encourage everyone to communicate both good and bad news as soon as it happens so everyone is up-to-date about any issues. Picking universal subjects can also give their employees a chance to congratulate each other, allowing them to create stronger relationships.

3 Implement team-building exercises: These activities will bring people closer and make them more open to communicating with each other. Every employee should be invited to a shared space and instructed to work with coworkers outside their regular groups.

4 Track organizational progress: Keep an eye out for how well these strategies are working and if their employees are collaborating more. They need to review morale in the workplace and conduct forums or surveys to determine how they perceive their co-workers who work outside their original groups.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one way to evaluate the organizational silo’s effectiveness is by assessing each component. For example, if there is no clear goal for a particular silo, it will be difficult for it to be successful. Another component that impacts success in a silo is the communication channel between all levels. If people are not able to communicate with those at other levels, it will lead to a lack of coordination among different groups. Lastly, motivation can have an impact on organization silos. When people don’t find their jobs motivating enough, they may become unmotivated, which can lead to decreased performance in that part of the organization.

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