Collaboration Crossroads: Breaking Down Silos And Building Bridges

Republished By Plato

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Collaboration within a company is one of the many keys to its overall success. But unfortunately, many studies suggest organizational silos stop effective collaborations from occurring within companies. One, in particular, found that 75% of the cross-functional teams set up within companies are dysfunctional because of these silos. Far too often, these narrow-visioned silos set their sights on going after smaller departmental goals as opposed to larger company-wide initiatives.

Are silos starting to take a toll on your company and stopping it from reaching its full potential? If so, it’s time for your company to begin breaking down silos and building bridges between your different departments. It may feel like trying to push a boulder uphill at first. But once you’ve done it, it’ll change the way your company operates for good. Take a look at several tips that will help you do it below.

Identify Your Company’s Silos

Silos exist within most companies, even if those who run them don’t always realize it. Employees within companies get siloed into departments, which can lead to a silo mentality setting in. These departments don’t always communicate as much as they should, and it can limit the amount of information that flows freely through companies.

If you’d like to stop the silo mentality from impacting your company, begin by identifying the silos that have been created. It’ll make it possible for you to start to break them down. It’ll be difficult to do this if you aren’t aware of the silos that have formed.

Communicate Your Company’s Goals

While you’re in the process of identifying your company’s silos, work on establishing a set of collective goals for your organization. It’ll put you in the perfect position to communicate your company’s goals to the employees from all your different departments. Put these goals down on paper so you’re able to pass them along to your employees and make them tangible.

Ideally, you should try to get all your employees into the same room so that you can communicate each of your company’s goals clearly to them. It’ll allow them to ask questions about these goals. It’ll also provide you with a chance to emphasize the fact that all your employees should keep these goals in mind at all times when moving forward. Make sure you let them know they’re still free to come up with and chase their own individual and departmental goals—as long as they align with your company’s goals.

Create Shared Responsibilities for Your Company’s Employees

If silos have formed within your organization, most of your employees are probably only worried about their specific responsibilities and not the responsibilities associated with those from other departments. This can be detrimental to your business. It may stop employees from different departments from feeling accountable to one another. This alone can hold your company back when it comes to trying to hit your goals.

The best way to break down the walls your employees have built up between your various departments is by forcing those from different silos to work together within your facility. Whenever possible, attempt to have employees from, say, your marketing department, sitting in on important meetings held by your sales team to create more collaborative opportunities. You may even want to go as far as to have employees from different departments work together on large-scale projects to ensure they’re all putting their heads together for the greater good.

Give Your Company’s Employees Great Leaders

Your efforts to abolish the silo mentality within your company will only be as strong as the corporate leadership team you have in place. It’ll be important to hire great leaders to work for your company and rely on them to push the employees who work under them to collaborate. The heads of your company’s departments will also need to get into the habit of collaborating among themselves to set a positive example for your other employees.

Provide Your Company’s Employees With Collaborative Tools

There are so many collaborative tools your company can invest in these days to build bridges between your employees. From business messaging apps to project management platforms to 3PL warehouse management software, you can get your company’s employees on the same page by taking full advantage of the technology available to you.

Invest in as many of these collaborative tools as you can now and commit to investing in more of them in the future. They’ll successfully break down your company’s silos even further and build strong bridges between your employees so that you’re able to achieve all your company’s goals and then some.

Start Breaking Down Your Company’s Silos and Building Bridges

It’s only natural for silos to form within companies, especially when they’re on the larger side. But if you let them flourish, it can kill the collaborative spirit among your employees and limit your company’s potential. Use the tips listed here to stop this from happening. They’ll help you take down silos once and for all and bring your employees together like never before.

About the author

Aaron Smith is an LA-based content strategist and consultant in support of STEM firms and medical practices. He covers industry developments and helps companies connect with clients. In his free time, Aaron enjoys swimming, swing dancing, and sci-fi novels.