60+ questions to help you understand the silos in your organization
Are you working to improve collaboration across your organization?
An important aspect to figure out is how silos form and evolve in the company.
As organizations are complex systems, where many times there are no clear cause-effect relationships, we think that questions are better than prescriptive answers for understanding what happens in your organization.
That’s why we created a map with questions for you and other leaders in the company and we invite you to explore it together. Our hope is that the questions will help you start conversations about silos in your organization and bring more clarity around this thorny topic.
Based on our work and study, we found that there are some usual suspects — conditions that enable the creation and the proliferation of silos in the world of work:
- The silo-centric definition of performance
- The structure that reinforces silos
- The failure of previous cross-silo initiatives
- The history that exemplifies that silos have worked
- The lack of understanding of how the whole business functions
- The lack of organization design capability
- The prioritization of work that reinforces silos
- The budgeting process that reinforces silos
- The other processes across the organization
- The signaling of certain information in the organization
- The lack of shared direction across the company
- The lack of balance between autonomy and alignment
- The other cultural elements that reinforce silos
- The lack of communication between parts of the organization
We’ve grouped the questions around these areas to make the map easier to use:
You can start exploring the map from any point and use the connecting lines to continue the conversation. Here’s the full list of questions:
1. What does performance mean in the organization?
2. Are processes designed to reinforce working in silos?
3. Is there a lack of organization design capability in the organization?
4. Is autonomy encouraged in the organization without sufficient alignment elements?
5. Are there other elements that focus the people’s attention and reinforce working in silos?
6. How is the organization structured?
7. Do reporting lines reinforce working in silos?
8. Are there loyalties primarily towards the decision makers that control salaries and bonuses in the organization?
9. Is there an excessive attachment to professions and titles in the organization?
10. Is there a lack of “connector roles” that work across silos?
11. Is there a low presence of informal networks in the organization?
12. Are career paths designed primarily for in-silo growth?
13. Is there a history of failed cross-silo initiatives?
14. Is there a lack of program management capability?
15. Is there a lack of organizational change management capability?
16. Did words associated with org-level programs become devoid of clear meaning? e.g. Agile, Digital Transformation, Design, Culture Change
17. Is change fatigue or cynicism present in the organization?
18. Is there distrust in external change agents? e.g. experts, consultants, trainers, advisers, coaches, facilitators etc.
19. Does the history of the organization reinforce working in silos?
20. When new executives join — are they focusing on their immediate area of control (usually the entity they lead) to demonstrate performance?
21. After reorgs — are new entity heads focusing on demonstrating performance in the new setup, with their new entities?
22. Is there a lack of visibility on historical examples when working in silor didn’t yield the expected performance?
23. Are there vivid examples in the collective memory of the organization of previous experiences of high performance in silos?
24. Is there evidence of people not understanding how the whole business works?
25. Is it because lack of training?
26. Is it because lack of communication?
27. Is it because lack of experience?
28. Is it because reduced internal mobility?
29. Is there a lack of trust between entities?
30. Is there a bad reputation that some entities have?
31. How is performance measured?
32. How is work being prioritized in the organization?
33. Does current decision making prioritize primarily a short term focus?
34. Are people being overworked?
35. Is there a lack of availability to communicate with “non-essential” stakeholders?
36. How are goals being set?
37. Do the objectives of each entity reinforce working in silos?
38. Do the measurements of the achievement levels reinforce working in silos?
39. Are there monetary incentives (e.g. bonuses) that reinforce working in silos?
40. How is unit performance tied to the budget it receives?
41. Do financial controls and budget allocation in the organization reinforce working in silos?
42. Are “team building” budgets allocated primarily per entity (and not across different entities in the organization)?
43. How is information being signaled in the organization?
44. Does the org chart reinforce working in silos?
45. Is the structure of the intranet reinforcing working in silos?
46. Is the physical arrangement of the offices reinforcing working in silos?
47. Are signatures that are used in emails reinforcing working in silos?
48. Is the way org-level updated are presented reinforcing working in silos?
49. Is there a lack of shared purpose between entities?
50. Is there a lack of connection with the company vision?
51. Is there a disconnect from the market context?
52. Is there a low exposure to the company’s customers?
53. Is there a low exposure to new signals and shifts in the market?
54. Are there unconscious elements that reinforce working in silos?
55. Are there words that reinforce working in silos?
56. Are there habits that reinforce working in silos?
57. Are there cognitive biases (e.g. recency bias, fundamental attribution error) that reinforce working in silos?
58. Is there a lack of leadership capability to create alignment?
59. Do leaders of certain entities show an excessive need for control?
60. Is there a disconnect from the larger organizational context?
61. Is there a lack of transparency between entities?
62. Is there a lack of communication between entities?
63. Are meetings between entities efficient and effective?
64. Is there a lack of effective communication alternatives to e-mail and meetings?
65. Is there a lack of common language between the subcultures of the different entities in the organization?
66. Is there a lack of shared values between the subcultures of the different entities in the organization?
67. Are different entities in the organization knowing the others’ strengths and capabilities?
68. How does feedback circulate between different entities in the organization?
Which questions resonate the most? Are there questions missing?
Let us know in the comments below.
Intervening in order to increase collaboration across the organization is a considerate act. That’s why it’s helpful to make sense of what’s going on at the system level and then see how the changes you try impact the organization. Sense & change & sense & change.
If you enjoyed this, you might also like some other stories:
