So many organizations struggle with silos in the workplace.
Some silos in the workplace are caused by disunity, however many are simply because we get in our own bubble, head down, focused on our own work and we forget about the big picture. We forget about the other departments and how we impact them and they impact us.
Consider holding both the shared identity of being team as well as being part of a team.
In the US we tend to play as individuals – taking care of our own square footage. And there’s many days when quite honestly that feels like both a lot and enough.
We share, here’s who I am and what I’m up to in the world. We learn about the other.
Then we might work together – two-gether. Still often separate in our contribution.
Inside our workshop that breaks down silos and builds up trust, we talk about the importance of Interdependency Awareness and how “each piece is mission critical to the whole and the whole is mission critical to each piece.” This analogy acknowledges both our personal agency and autonomy in contributing to a whole, and how the whole encompasses each and all of us – as if drops in the ocean.
The other analogy that occurs to me, that straddles both of these, are starlings who instinctively dance in flight together as one – as a collective.
Inside a collective, we have a chance to not only create and experience a stronger sense of community, belonging and inclusion - but to have a bigger impact. The whole reason we"organize" into organizations is to come together to work towards a shared purpose. When we organize, a whole new world opens up.
A world of deep, meaningful, complex conversations and exchanges that allow us to discover unexpected insights, awareness and innovation.
These don’t tend to occur solo on the same scale.
It's so important for our team members to realize how important their role is, and the impact they have on other team members and departments. However equally important is team members begin to understand and appreciate the value of their co-workers' roles. This does not require time-consuming cross-training. Nor does it require a "show and tell"by every department.
This awareness, once anchored, allows for team members to see what requests to make from other team members to make their jobs easier and more effective, as well as to seek how to support their fellow team members in having more ease and velocity in accomplishing the work.
Bridging silos in the workplace takes a mindset shift of the whole team - where they are present to the macro as they work on the micro on a daily basis. Having this awareness of the whole and how one fits into it dramatically shifts what is prioritized, shared and accomplished.
