Silos Kill This Big 3!

Silos are great if you’re a farmer protecting grain. Silos are horrible if you’re an organization trying to adapt and grow.

In agriculture, silos are those big cylindrical vertical tubes that are used to keep the good stuff, like grain and corn, in and the bad stuff, like rain and critters, out. In business, silos keep information apportioned so that one part of an organization doesn’t know what’s going on in the other parts – even when they’re interdependent!

In business, silos are what prevent organizations from doing their best and being their most productive. In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, CEOs site silos as the number one killer of innovation. And the worst part is that oftentimes people can feel protective of information. As if others won’t know what to do if they are trusted with the same knowledge – this is the kind of environment where trust struggles to survive.

Tearing down silos fosters trust, communication and teamwork.

1. Trust is built because we know what’s going on. We can see that our coworkers aren’t out to get us, and they can handle the knowledge sharing.
2. Communication is enhanced when we do a better job of sharing information. Again this has to be horizontally and vertically, flowing back and forth – top to bottom, bottom to top, side to side.
3. Teamwork happens seamlessly when we employ trust and communication because we’re able to develop better working relationships – across departments and across locations. We do better work – and work together better – when we know people have our best interest at heart.

In any organization – even in our own homes – silos create dysfunction. People need to know what’s going on so they can make good, informed decisions. What happens when the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing? It’s not uncommon for them to not only head off in different, but conflicting directions working against each other.

In a company where one of the stated strategies for employee growth is innovation, tearing down silos is absolutely critical. When you consider that no individual or department can function without the functioning from another department, it only makes sense that they should share information as freely and openly as they possibly can.

I got this from the HBR Blog Network:

"It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defender in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarm-ness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor, and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who does not truly believe in anything new until they have had experience of it."

You know who said that? Niccolo Machiavelli, in 1533 – yeah, THAT Machiavelli. 500 years ago! He's describing the culture of a siloed organization - afraid of different, afraid of change.

Here’s how The Leadership Freak describes silos and what to do about them:

Organizational silos:

1. Grow inward like incestuous families.
2. Isolate talent.
3. Hoard resources.
4. Slow progress.
5. Dampen enthusiasm.
6. Create paranoia.
7. Act in self-protective ways that damage others.
8. Don’t network.
9. Focus on individual good rather than organizational good.
10. Win when others lose.

Bonus: Silos resist change.

Silo Breakers:

Silo-breaking is painful and slow but can be done.

1. Form a clear picture of your organization without silos.
2. Define specific behaviors that enhance collaboration and break silos.
3. Hold cross-department planning meetings. Let them see the “enemy.”
4. Embrace decision-making by participants not isolated bosses.
5. Tell stories that honor collaboration and illustrate silo-breaking.
6. Reward teams and teamwork.
7. Develop leadership skills and attitudes that enhance collaboration.
8. Measure performance in terms of teams.
9. Seek best solutions regardless of the source.
10. Establish inclusive rather than exclusive systems.

Bonus: Embrace maximum transparency and information sharing.


Silos are slow, cumbersome, and destructive. Organizations with silos may win battles but eventually they collapse inward and lose the war.

Here’s the organizational imperative: The key to breaking down silos and building trust is transparency and open communication. For organizations to thrive in the future, information must flow freely vertically and horizontally.