01 Apr Are Silos Ruining Your Organization?
31% of employees are feeling less connected to their leaders and 39% feeling less connected to their co-workers 1. This data from Glint research is troublesome especially if silos were a challenge for you before the world went remote. What are silos? They are those barriers, some invisible and some blatant, that prevent information from flowing easily throughout your organization. Without a free flow of information, you and your organization are at risk for decreased employee engagement, stalled creativity, lack of innovation, and a multitude of redundancy. Are you seeing evidence of silos in your organization? A sure sign is a feeling of being “less connected”. If so, don’t despair, here are three practices you as a leader of a hybrid or remote team can use today to shatter those barriers that are preventing you and ultimately your organization from achieving the level of success you are truly capable of.
- Clearly articulate how each team member contributes to reaching departmental, interdepartmental, and organizational goals. When employees know exactly how they fit in to help achieve these goals they are much more likely to proactively share information, resources, and discretionary effort. The process of sharing information, resources, and energy all help to shatter silos. Incorporate this into your weekly one-to-one conversation with each team member which Leena Nair, CHRO of Unilever says there is no substitute for.
- Ensure the individual goals of each employee support the interdepartmental collaborative goals of the organization. Do your goals compete? Have them share their goals. This will make it easier for them to know specifically who to ask for help and who to offer help to, both necessary steps to eliminating silos.
- Praise employee efforts to create meaningful relationships and connections within their department and across the organization. You as a leader will get more of what you pay attention to! If helping them to feel more connected is a priority for you, let them know it. Share clear examples of where shattering the barriers between people, teams, and departments have resulted in amazing relationships, progress, innovation, and growth.
Silos have always been a problem for organizations. Do you have examples where silos have negatively impacted progress? Are the increasing numbers of remote and hybrid teams making silos better or worse? What specific steps or practices have you implemented to successfully shatter the silos, or minimize their toxic effect? I look forward to your comments below. Let’s smash the silos together.