Maximizing the Human Potential

Corporate Silos

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Seandrew shaffer consulting corporate silosOver the last few weeks I have had several individuals express frustration about how their business was siloed or stove piped.  This basically means that everyone works within their specific function and ignores everyone else. In fact, in one specific case, it had an employee considering leaving the company. Well integrated, high performing teams and companies cannot operate with this model. Today I am going to talk about the dangers of corporate silos to your business and offer a suggestion for a solution.

Corporate Silos

A few weeks back I talked about Team Integration.  In that post, I discussed the importance of teams working towards a common goal.  I feel this is important to keep everyone focused on the results, and helps people work together better. However, even when everyone in the company and the team is working toward a common goal there can still be corporate silos.  This is evident with statements like:

  • Don’t tell me how to do my job!
  • What do you know about …
  • Stay in your lane!

These are not a sign of a well-integrated, high performing team.

Communication

Companies operating in silos inevitably do not communicate well.  Marketing isn’t communicating with sales. Design working independent of manufacturing. Accounting isn’t communicating with anyone. When communication breaks down, there is a lack of mutual trust and respect. Poor communication will cost your business money.

I have seen where a lack of communication has caused projects to overrun budgets by up to 200% or more. On a project I was working on, one engineer worked strictly in his own silo.  He’d communicate weekly about what he accomplished. But the other engineers, who were using this design, would regularly find things that didn’t work.  Why? Because they didn’t communicate effectively up front so that everyone understood the path forward. They all went about their tasks, and when the two were integrated, it didn’t work and there was a ton of expensive re-work.

Complexity

Siloed companies are plagued with complexity. Why? Because they must add processes and procedures to everything to compensate for a lack of communication.  Does this sound familiar? In these types of organizations, when something goes wrong like supply chain didn’t order the right parts slowing down manufacturing. Suddenly there is a new process for ordering parts requiring four or five signatures inevitably from people too busy and layers away from the actual work. Time is added to the process, and there are more questions which mean a longer process.  Eliminate this with effective communication.

To add to the complexity, managers and leaders will start protecting themselves so they aren’t blamed for the delays. Infighting backstabbing and more bureaucracy can also enter in the picture.

Solution

Change your decision-making process. Include more communication. Develop decision making teams, at the appropriate level, that include a cross function of support. Any and all stakeholders should be included, and if they are not the meeting should be put on hold. Work all scenarios up front. Set expectations and make plans. Many times, especially on time sensitive projects, people just dive in and get started. While initiative is something that is admirable, jumping in without proper preparation is a formula for rework, exceeding budgets and missing deadlines.  Create a culture where people work together, communicate with mutual trust and respect.

This Week’s Challenge

How is your company culture structured? Are there corporate silos and finger pointing, or communication based on mutual trust and respect? Are all stakeholders brought in for decisions or are people just told to live with decisions being made?  Creating the right culture, and integrated culture, will dramatically improve your bottom line!

Give us a call for an assessment and consultation and see how you can start improving your bottom line.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Team Integration

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andrew shaffer consulting team integrationMany companies I meet with struggle with the team performance. Their teams aren’t integrated and operating at maximum efficiency. What does a lack of team integration look like?

A lack of integration in business is evident by infighting. For example, production blaming supply chain when they don’t have necessary parts. Or, a sales teams blaming marketing for lousy marketing material. Perhaps, managers blaming employees for lack of production or, employees complaining because management doesn’t get it. Sound familiar?

Scroll down to read this week’s blog post all about team integration.

Team Integration

There is a lot of information to be found on team building. Some of it is good, and some of it is not so good. Most businesses inherently understand team building, and some companies spend small fortunes on team building exercises and off-sites to leverage the benefits of team building.

Team building and team integration is something different. To illustrate, I’ll turn to my experience with youth sports. Every coach builds a team. The coach identifies the needs (the positions needed to play) and, assigns players to play those positions. The coach and their staff will work to develop the players skills to be successful at that position. This is team building. Come game time, the coach has a team.

Team Building vs Integration

I have had the experience of coaching teams with and without integration. The team that wasn’t integrated struggled during each game to be successful. Each player knew his position and responsibilities. However, some of the kids didn’t trust or rely on their teammates. As a result, kids wouldn’t pass the ball to each other, offer help on defense. As a result, when we lost (which was almost inevitable) they would blame each other and never take responsibility for their part in the loss.

When I had a well-integrated team, my players relied on each other, and did everything they could not to let each other down. There was more comradery, the season was more fun, and we won a lot more! When the team was integrated, they were in it for more than personal success. They were there for the team.

Vision

There is an old story about President Kennedy visiting NASA during the early days of the Apollo program. President Kennedy was doing a tour of the facilities and met a janitor wearing coveralls and holding a mop. The president asked the man what he was doing there. The janitor replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon.”

Now I can’t believe that story happened, but it does make a point. This janitor felt integrated as part of a team. He saw the vision of putting a man on the moon and he was doing his part. His part might have been moping the floors, but it was a necessary job that enabled the engineers to do their job.

Teams that are integrated are working for something larger than them their actual job. They see a bigger picture. Therefore, it is important that leaders share their vision with their employees, so everyone knows how they are contributing, and why their job is important to the company. Many times, people get so focused on the day to day aspects of their jobs, they lose focus of the bigger picture. When this happens teams will start to dis-integrate.

Outcomes

Well integrated teams see much more success than other teams. Again, when you look at sports, players that practice together in the off seasons are more “in tune” with each other than players that don’t. That translates to more victories on the field.

Integrated business teams tend to be more entrepreneurial.  This helps companies find faster cheaper better ways to compete. The entrepreneurial spirt helps companies see beyond the horizon and develop the “next best thing.” Integrated teams develop and retain the best people to help ensure success both in the short and long terms.

This Week’s Challenge

Is your team working at maximum efficiency?  Are you seeing finger pointing and blame in your company? Do you see other signs of a lack of team integration?

Give us a call for an assessment and consultation and see how you can start improving your bottom line.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.