How Did The Silos Get There, And What Can We Do About Them?

Silos in an organization are a vestige of another time, probably useful when priorities were different.

Work has always been a function of the interplay among specs, money and time.

In the old days, we had more time. Problems stayed put and would sit there not changing much, waiting for you to solve them. Many companies were often flush with money. That meant the focus was on having deep levels of expertise concentrated in parts of the organization, headed up by managers who had done the job and knew how to bring those skills to bear on a project in an organized, deliberate way, using a time-tested playbook to build products and solve problems.

Now the work landscape is constantly shifting. The expectation of customers is that problems will be solved quickly. And yesterday’s problems are not the same as today’s. They appear seemingly out of nowhere and can sink the ship quickly unless inventive solutions can be applied quickly. Ideas can and should come from anywhere and everywhere, not just from the subject matter experts. Budget money is harder to come by, and it’s expected that solutions today will be cheaper than they were yesterday.

We often read and hear advice that we should blow up the silos. But reorganization is costly and disruptive. A better approach is to leave the functional structure in place and tailor staffing across organizational lines for each project to fit the situation. See our previous post 4 Steps to Start And Run Your Next Project.