Organizational silos can be a hazard to any company, anywhere in the world. Literally. Period. I know so because I have been part of a company where there was a silo mentality. Eventually, it harnessed a toxic setup, and a lot of people ended up leaving the company. I didn’t quit. The silos were eventually dealt with after firing the people responsible for it.
Here’s what I learned about organizational silos and 5 interesting ways to deal with them, to begin with.
The following are the five important ways utilizing which we can break down social silos.
1. Beware of Common Pitfalls:
If you are a leader, make yourself clear on the company’s common goals. Everyone’s vision should be aligned with the organization’s best interest. A lot of times, silos develop when people start chit chatting about different office related stuff.
Create a platform where everyone can communicate and collaborate. If someone’s having an issue with anything related to the company policies, then you can create anonymous suggestions or feedback system. This is the best way of helping the employees to let the air out while ensuring that their concerns are at least getting somewhere.
2. Must Allocate Multipurpose Connections:
It is very necessary to scrutinize the cause of social silos very early in an organization’s start.
Delaying in problem-solving can cause a disaster in a company later on. Keep in mind that union is strength.
Assign multipurpose tasks so that people in the company communicate with each other so we stop anything that has a link to social silos. In this way, we can also furnish the confidence in the employees so interact freely without any dint of fear to talk. Also discuss regularly with your employees regarding their progress and how it will impact the overall performance of the company.
3. Uplift Multipurpose Teaching Platforms:
Once a month, train your employees about the difficulties that higher management faces. Things often look “easy” to subordinates from a down-top perspective. A multi-purpose coaching platform is essential to enlightening everyone about the challenges faced at the upper tier.
Speaking of the upper tier, such a platform also offers numerous opportunities for communication between senior and junior level employees. Also, by doing so, you are helping everyone to eliminate any ill-will or such feelings that people may harbor against each other while working under the same roof.
4. Find a Way to Reshape Multi-Functional Tasks:
There are times when employees feel burdened due to copious amounts of work. Especially when an organization has to let go of certain key figures, the substitute or other fellow employees filling the gap on a temporary basis, have a hard time meeting the responsibilities.
The predicament is very common these days. However, it is very important to address the issue of delegating tasks, so that one person does not have to perform multiple functions altogether. If these issues are not addressed in time, the said employee will not only start to feel agitated, but he/she may head toward an encapsulated soli mentality. Would you expect such a thing from a person in the company?
This is why it is super important to develop a backup plan that helps employees with multi-functional tasks. While you are at it as a leader, make sure that these tasks are temporary and a new employee is hired on an immediate basis.
5. What about IKEA Advantage?
Don’t get me wrong; I am not referring to the furniture stuff here. IKEA affects those employees that are heavily and emotionally invested in the company from the start and to the end of an ongoing project. Such people are likely to last more than their counterparts because of their due diligence to the organization’s vision.
But then again, these long commitments take a big toll on the emotional state of the employee in question. Try to give some special protocol to such hard workers. Interact with them, incentivize their performance and above all, listen to what they have to say. This also means that different departments from the company should collaborate more often to remove the common social silo specter.
During such times, collective efforts yield better results instead of individual efforts on behalf of a handful of people at the top management position.
Conclusion:
Depending on the company, there could be a variety of reasons that contribute to silos. Your best bet is to identify the issues that lead to such problems and have certain measures in place to deal with them. Silo mentality is not only toxic, but it ends up affecting teams or sometimes departments even.
What is your take on organizational silos? Have you ever encountered or witnessed them? If so, do let us know through the comments section below. You can also write to us anonymously at fwilson@ntaskmanager.com.
