Five ways internal comms can reduce silo working
If someone said there were a lot of silos in your organisation you’d know, before they said another word, that they didn’t mean it as a positive. So, if we all know silos are bad, why are they so common in the workplace?
Because silos kind of just happen. Businesses grow, more specialised functions are needed and it becomes harder to keep on top of what everyone is doing. It perhaps won’t surprise you that silo working increased during the pandemic; we might have used digital communication more during lockdown, but we did so mostly within the comfort of our own teams. And that’s because favouring silo working is part of human nature. But it’s also a way of working that’s known to hamper business performance and it can be a hard habit to break. How do you know if it’s an issue in your organisation? And what do you do if it is?
The different types of silos to look out for
A long time ago a silo just meant a grain store. Nowadays, it also refers to a number of different ways of working. You can have:
Organisational silos: While departments and sub-departments are necessary to give structure, problems occur when departments become too independent from the rest of the business and it’s often when they are highly specialised. They might be very focussed on their own professional goals, for example, rather than those which apply organisation wide.
Information silos: These tend to occur where you see the above, but also when the right processes aren’t in place within a company. It’s when the flow of information between departments or teams is poor, perhaps because there is no efficient way for people to properly record and share information, so it remains trapped within departments. In the worst cases, it can be deliberate – a team hoards or even hides access to data or ideas from others within the company.
A silo mentality: Perhaps the hardest one to break, this is where employees, managers and senior execs are unwilling to share information that doesn’t serve them or fit their goals. It’s not always self-serving, if someone’s burnt out or unmotivated they might not even think that the information they hold could be useful elsewhere. And sometimes, if you’re not careful, incentives can create a silo mentality – offering bonuses for hitting certain efficiency goals, for example, can lead to people putting themselves before the team.
What can you do if you recognise any of the above? Well, as with so many things, good communication will make a world of difference. You can use it to foster collaboration and transparency and bring a sense of unity. Here’s how:
Create channels which encourage open conversations across departments.
This can take a variety of forms but what you’re looking to do is get different teams acquainted with what others do so they can see where their work intersects and where they could be of benefit to each other.
Set up a new interdepartmental meeting or a series of lunchtime explainer sessions so that employees can learn what other departments are doing.
Ensure new joiners spend time in each department as part of their onboarding process.
If you think your organisation is being hampered by too many or too few digital tools for information sharing, change your processes to something more efficient and transparent. Then…
Make sure everyone knows how to use it. Create a best business practice handbook to outline which tools employees should use to message colleagues and track projects. Ensure management instil its use among their teams.
2. Stress the importance of leadership in setting a communication-friendly culture and hold leaders accountable for breaking down barriers.
It is the senior leadership who should be looking to facilitate discussion between teams, making sure that the right information is extracted and shared. If it’s a priority for them, it will become a priority for others in the organisation too. It’s not just about having regular interdepartmental heads meetings either. It’s about addressing the silo mentality where it exists by establishing a healthy company culture – making your workplace somewhere people feel safe giving their views and where they’re encouraged to collaborate and be transparent.
3. Encourage interdepartmental projects and initiatives and facilitate opportunities for employees from different teams to collaborate and share ideas.
Create specific projects for cross-functional teams, but make sure they address real priorities and are incorporated as a core part of each member’s job so that they don’t get relegated to a side project.
Create best practices for how to communicate with other departments and when a project is over, set up retrospectives and evaluation meetings.
4. Celebrate successes and recognise the achievements which result from cross organisational collaboration.
Make increasing awareness of the need to reduce silo working part of your internal comms strategy. Highlighting successes will make the employees involved feel valued, improve connections across the company and help others see how they are contributing to something larger than themselves.
5. Be clear that this is a journey.
Successfully getting rid of silos will take time as, in many cases, it’s about changing a culture. You will need to monitor progress and ask for feedback on how people think it’s going and what further improvements can be made. Remember that lots of small improvements made over time will look like a massive improvement when you take stock a year or two from now. Feedback really is vital so make sure there are ways that employees can give this.
Reducing silo working is an area where everyone can play a part and, if it’s one of your strategic aims as a business, good internal communication can help you deliver it. It is just one of the ways that internal comms can drive organisational success, and so we believe it needs to be on your agenda. If you’d like support around siloed working, contact Kate or Sophie today – we’d love to have a chat!
