Memory Beta | Main / Silos

The one department with no internal strife is the one where nobody has the time for it.

Putting executives and marketing folks in a different facility than the factory floor leads to an increase in silos.

Incentive perks and bonuses reserved only for the sales team is a silo recipe.

When things are going too smoothly in terms of external pressures on the team, people may turn attention inwards and divisions can form.

It may be that a crisis is the best way to rally a company, as long as it doesn't sink the company.

The anti-silo mindset:

"I really don't care about your departments or titles or functional responsibilities. I want all of us focused on what's important, regardless of where it falls in the organization."
"It's almost like we need to disregard our titles when we're together, and then put our functional hats back on when we go back to work."

If there is a place where the blame for silos and politics belongs, it is at the top of an organization. Every departmental silo in any company can ultimately be traced back to the leaders of those departments.

The model for combating silos consists of:

Thematic goal (the rallying cry)
Set of defining objectives
Set of ongoing standard operating objectives
Metrics

Concluding Thoughts

One possible conclusion from all this is that you may be better off in some circumstances hiring flexible, versatile people that are willing to wear many hats rather than limited specialists who won't step up to help with anything outside their job description. You don't want to bring on full-time people for a limited specialist role that only has so much work to be done. In fact, you'd a great deal rather hire someone part-time to do several different things that together don't add up to a full-time role.