Eliminating Silos Improves Performance

Have you heard the one about the four blind men and the elephant? It’s an ancient parable that teaches savvy leaders how to eliminate the silo phenomenon found in most organizations.

Originally, silos were huge containers used to separate and store wheat and other grains found on farms. Now, a silo is a metaphor for groups that work so independently that they are unaware of the interests, goals and achievements of other groups within the company.

With single-minded focus, each group vies for resources and makes commitments that may damage the interests or goals of another group. Here’s a common scenario: sales promises to deliver the new software program in six weeks to make a big sale with a new client. Unfortunately, engineering projects that the program won’t be fully debugged for another seven weeks and marketing is saving the rollout for the last quarter, another eight weeks away. Sales, engineering and marketing all blame