How siloed thinking prevents culture change

Whether it’s a case of departments competing for resources, or teams simply not sharing information,  siloed thinking can contribute negatively to your organisations culture. Without a commitment to tackle the root causes of work silos when embarking on your culture change journey, you may find that silos prevent culture change entirely. 

Ratna Morjaria, Lead Consultant here at Tribe Culture Change, explains.

The eight main impacts of siloed thinking  

1. New values - Siloed teams will often develop their own micro-cultures with distinct norms, behaviours, and procedures which can contradict the desired organisational culture.  
2. Shared vision and goals - Whilst your management team may have invested a lot of time and effort into creating a single vision and mission for your organisation, if your departments or teams operate in silos those teams will focus on their specific objectives rather than your broader organisational goals.  
3. Leadership alignment - When departments have created their own procedures and cultures which work specifically for them, leadership’s influence can become limited to those specific areas which have remained more open. This will undermine your ability to inspire a company-wide transformation. 
4. Competition over cooperation - In siloed environments, departments often see each other as competitors for resources, recognition, or budget. This can be a source of both friction and frustration for employees as well as creating an “us and them” mindset.  
5. Losing control  - Teams in silos often become attached to their established practices, and cultural change may be seen as a threat to their control or stability. People may become more entrenched in the “tried and true” ways of working to keep a sense of order. 
6. Duplication - When teams operate in isolation, they may duplicate efforts, process or procedures leading to inefficiencies and an inability to easily find data. 
7. Harmonisation - Silos tend to create environments where teams get comfortable with their own ways of working, making them resistant to new ideas or changes.  This can limit how the different parts of your organisation cooperate when the need arises. 
8. Employee engagement - Employees working in silos may feel disconnected from the broader organisation, making them less likely to engage with or even care about cultural initiatives. 

Strategies for breaking down siloed thinking 

How did we get here? 

You can only create a new culture by first understanding where you are right now. 

Your management team can’t build a single vision, a single mission or a single culture without first gaining the trust of their employees and bringing them onside. It’s crucial for a successful culture change that you understand how ready your organisation is for change right now. 

Your first step is to understand how the existing micro-cultures in your organisation came to be.  Whether the silos are a result of geographically diverse workplaces, competition between managers, or are more structural, such as a poor induction process, the key to breaking down siloed thinking is going to be communication, as well as actively listening to your organisation.   

Talking to the teams who have created a silo mentality will reveal the deeper reasons into how the new values and procedures came about and will help you avoid making the same mistakes again. A  team that has previously raised issues but had them be ignored by management for example may have felt forced to create their own procedures as a result.   

Increase engagement 

Once you have your baseline understanding of how your departments  currently work,  communicating openly and honestly with your workforce about the culture change process can in itself lead to greater cooperation across your organisation. Breaking down silos by actively listening and engaging with your teams and showing that everyone in the management team is invested in making things better is the first step in the organisation’s journey from “them and us” to just “us”.    

Reduce resistance  

Breaking down your silos by understanding the microcultures that created them increases buy in from your employees.  It is key to helping people both understand the company they belong to and fostering a sense of belonging and togetherness.   As leaders understand more about the organisation and why it does the things the way it does, it can reduce inefficiency, duplicated processes. 

Create connections 

Facilitating face to face discussions between management and workers  gives everyone a chance to share their individual stories in a safe space, which helps people discover common ground.  Knowing you have more in common with your fellow workers than not helps challenge any outdated notions of hierarchy, or organisational stereotyping, which might not serve the needs of newer generations who are entering your workforce.   

A Positive Culture 

By acknowledging the silos in your workplace, encouraging open and effective communication between your teams, and creating genuine connections between your workers, you’re already taking the first real steps on your journey to a positive culture in your organisation. Tribe Culture Change is here to lend you a helping hand along the way.