Magic Pill #2 - Bridging Silos

One observation I made over the past years is that there seems to be a growing gravitation towards focus on individual work. This not only establishes silo mentality and makes collaborating across departments, geographies and hierarchical levels more difficult. This also stimulates individualism within teams; a blame culture is nurtured and the spirit of working together fades away. Elements that are nudging in this direction are the way we set objectives and rewards, the mandate of individual job description, the setup of functional organisational structures, etc. They often reward individual contribution over team achievements.

At the same time, there are tons of information and concepts that praise and promote the fact that we can reach ultimate success only by collaborating with others: Google research, High Performing Teams, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, etc. While we can be efficient as an individual, the great achievements and the effectiveness of an organisation only stems from the collaborative advantage we develop in groups of people.

Why do we have this controversy between individual and collaborative efforts? Maybe it is the lack of ability and tools that nurture, cultivate and nudge towards the right behaviour and mindset. Here are some ideas from my experience.

• Joint objectives - the right set of objectives derived from within the team are making collaboration more purposeful and are connecting the individual silos.
• Team job descriptions - moving the description of achievements and tasks to a team level, will facilitate the conversation of what needs to be done and how everyone can support each other.
• Collaborative tools - in the last decades, a wide series of collaborative tools have evolved and are now established; these tools strengthen the feel that the group is working towards the same outcome.
• Social connections - the foundation of effective collaboration is that we understand each other; this requires bonding and dialogue. This can for example be achieved by regularly reviewing team principles.

Does this sound like a lot of work? I admit, this is not a shortcut. Still, these efforts are a worthwhile investment that leads to lasting success and extraordinary results. Benefits are that we unleash creativity, we engage and motivate the people, we establish a psychological safe work environment, we retain people and we enable the company to grow beyond the current box.

What have you recently done to stimulate cross-silo collaboration in your team?

​
Source: re:work - The five keys to a successful Google team
Read more about Magic Pill #1 - Reflect