MODERN BUSINESS
TEAM-TO-TEAM-PARTNERING:
The new frontier of
teambuilding
By Graham Winter
The epithet ‘silo’ is used derisively
in business to mean something
narrow and inefficient, however a
new style of adaptive leadership
and teamwork is turning that on
its head. We all know that the
organisational silos are often
caught with the smoking gun at the
scene of many a corporate crime,
but are they really guilty?
‘Of course they are’, was the blunt
retort from a seasoned HR leader
pointing towards three pieces of
circumstantial evidence:
1
Overruns on new initiatives that
have blown out budgets and
created heat between Executive
leaders
2
Falling net promoter scores that
tell the frustrations of customers
who sneer at the company’s
‘seamless service’ tag line
3
Delays in getting new products
to market that have given more
nimble competitors space to grow
in an over-crowded market
It certainly looks like the silos are
guilty of blocking the agility and
innovation that our new Prime
Minster is calling for, but all is not
what is seems. The team at the
aptly named Australian consultancy,
Think One Team have a different
view of silos, and Executive Director
52 ModernBusiness
March 2016
Paul Lloyd highlights Westpac, Rio
and Tatts Group as examples of
organisations that are physically
and geographically siloed; and yet
they deliver very effectively as one
team because they connect their
silos.
Tellingly, Lloyd shares awful stories
of others who have invested heavily
in initiatives to demolish the silos,
only to be mired in the tell-tale
signs of the silo problem that had
the HR leader wringing her hands.
It’s about set up
The Think One Team research and
experience reveals a set of five
practices commonly found and
reinforced within organisations
that show the symptoms of silo
behaviour.
Here are the five with one example
in each of a root cause of that
behaviour:
1
pursuing separate business unit
agendas because the ‘put-thebusiness-unit—first’ behaviour is
reinforced and rewarded by KPIs
and performance systems
2
avoiding and denying problems
because leaders create a culture
where challenging the status quo is
discouraged
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