Remove ’silos’ – improve performance

I was reading in the E-Myth newsletter the other day about the danger of having a ‘silo’ structure in your business. A silo model is when you have reached the point in your business growth that you have hired managers and the reporting structure has become identifiably vertical in each area. The article explained that, although this is not a bad thing in itself, there is a danger of creating rigid and isolated ‘silos’ that can hamper growth, create communication problems, and demoralise employees.

This sort of structure is typified by the following:

• ‘This is MY department’ syndrome – where managers and their staff become resistant to input or feedback from those outside their department

• ‘That’s not my job’ mindset – a myopic focus on one’s job description at the exclusion of any broader participation or expectations

• ‘Information Isolation’ – the unintentional isolating of information and data so that critical elements are left out of the flow of knowledge in a business

According to Patrick Lencioni, author of Silos, Politics and Turf Wars, in most situations, silos arise not because of what executives are doing on purpose but rather because of what they are failing to do.

The business owner works hard to create and direct a management team to carry out the goals of the company. Management works hard to maintain order, structure, and an efficient flow of information and a chain-of-command between themselves and the individual employees. Individual employees work hard to focus on their specific tasks and duties while working within the structure and silos of management and information flow. And somewhere the vision, the purpose, and the ‘team’ get lost.

The article establishes the fundamental steps you need to take to avoid this happening in your business:

• Create a unified management team

• Foster communication and trust — both laterally and vertically

• Establish and communicate a common vision and purpose

• Engage, engage, engage

Although this is not something that can be accomplished in a day, the foundations can be established fairly quickly. And, ultimately, the result will be a business structure that accommodates the needs for effective reporting and management while fostering a culture informed by a unifying vision.

For the full article, read here.

If you would like to make any comment on the above, I’d be glad to hear from you.