Mind the gap – silos are a risk and an opportunity for improvement
A few years ago I was editing a book on the military strategy of the WW2 June 6 1944 D-Day landings at Normandy in France. Not being a student of military history, I was struck by the lessons from that invasion that could be applied to organisational strategy and change generally – all be it on a much smaller scale.
This should not have been surprising of course, but the dire consequences of getting it wrong in war seemed to make the lessons more obvious. For even though the D-Day invasion succeeded, the range of strategy and implementation mistakes that were made in that invasion (the largest amphibious invasion in human history), resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths during the landings and probably resulted in WW2 being unnecessarily prolonged for months, costing millions of additional human lives.
One of the key patterns I noticed was that the gaps between groups that needed to work together was a critical area of performance weakness but also provided a major opportunity for strategic advantage in attack. The impact of silos became profound and deadly in war.
The Normandy invasion required cooperation between Army, Navy and Airforce; between British, American, and other allied forces; between political factions and other interest groups; and between military leaders and front line combat experienced troops, to list only a few groups. The weaknesses in how these groups worked together, particularly in the top command, in both planning and execution, contributed to the huge and unnecessary loss of life.
On reflection, I realised the gap between groups during the formulation of strategy and the implementation of change had also been a critical area of risk and opportunity in much of the change I had been involved in. And the effective management of this had been key in much of the success.
Humans are tribal and create barriers around their groups
Humans are tribal beings who form hierarchical groups for organisation, control, support, security and identity. Processes usually work much better within such groups than across them. But effective performance in war and in organisations involves processes that go across groups. And particularly where there are key differences in vested interests, values, or culture, major gaps and tensions often arise that create risks for the effective performance of the organisation, or the success of the change.
Such gaps might be between staff and customers, between font office and back office, between functional groups, between blue collar and white collar, or between groups who need to collaborate to deliver services to their customers or community. The gap between such groups is a common area for performance breakdown and also a major area of opportunity for performance improvement and strategic advantage – with the right leadership and facilitation.
It is so normal for human beings to create such behavioural and mind set barriers that one of the leading models for innovative strategy design deliberately employs processes to deal with this. Blue Ocean Strategy uses frameworks to get people to consider innovative options outside their group boundaries and mind sets by looking and working across groups, across disciplines, across industries, and even across time to encourage ground-breaking solutions to strategic problems.
The role of leaders as facilitators and role models to bridge gaps
Because it is so normal for people to not work well across groups, it is a particular responsibility of leaders to facilitate connections and mind set shifts. Unfortunately, many leaders see their role as only connecting up and down the hierarchy, not sideways and outwards.
Top and middle leaders have critical roles in facilitating connections across organisations, functions, customer and stakeholder groups. Failure to lead in this way is a key reason for failure of change to work. So leaders who are unsure of how to do this effectively need particular assistance if they are to remain in their leadership roles and sponsor change.
Leaders can reinforce and perpetuate silos or make it safe for staff to create connections and work across groups. Breaking down organisational silos and bringing people from different groups together to solve problems and improve performance can create breakthrough change and solve entrenched problems. But it needs leaders to initiate or role model this behaviour.
Other roles and functions that bridge gaps
Apart from top and middle managers, there are certain roles and groups in organisations that have cross-functional or cross-organisational responsibilities and are in positions to spot problems and support or facilitate bridge building to encourage effective working relationships and operations across the gaps. Such people include those working in human resources, project teams, change leaders, some government agencies, and other community coordination groups.
People in such roles need to have skills in identifying the dynamics and facilitating cross-group connections and relationship-building to support accountable leaders build the capability, relationships and processes that enable effective on-going operations. The challenge is often to ensure this becomes part of the normal operating rhythm of such leaders and groups so it becomes part of BAU and continues when projects finish, or the support is removed.
So whether it is the invasion of Normandy or implementation of new organisational programs, a secret to successful strategy and delivery, as well as ongoing day-to-day performance, is effective connections across the gaps between groups that need to work together to deliver results. This is a secret to exponential performance improvement, but leaders often need help with doing this effectively.
So I’d love to hear from you if you would like help with this in your team.
Susan Kehoe
Consultant | Coach | Change Leader
Work with Susan
Susan helps design and implement people-centred strategy, transformation and performance improvement. Her work involves challenging mind-sets, shifting culture, and engaging people to improve service delivery and performance. Her approach taps into the enormous unused potential of people in organisations to deliver exponentially better results with the right leadership, engagement and strategy.
This should not have been surprising of course, but the dire consequences of getting it wrong in war seemed to make the lessons more obvious. For even though the D-Day invasion succeeded, the range of strategy and implementation mistakes that were made in that invasion (the largest amphibious invasion in human history), resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths during the landings and probably resulted in WW2 being unnecessarily prolonged for months, costing millions of additional human lives.
One of the key patterns I noticed was that the gaps between groups that needed to work together was a critical area of performance weakness but also provided a major opportunity for strategic advantage in attack. The impact of silos became profound and deadly in war.
The Normandy invasion required cooperation between Army, Navy and Airforce; between British, American, and other allied forces; between political factions and other interest groups; and between military leaders and front line combat experienced troops, to list only a few groups. The weaknesses in how these groups worked together, particularly in the top command, in both planning and execution, contributed to the huge and unnecessary loss of life.
On reflection, I realised the gap between groups during the formulation of strategy and the implementation of change had also been a critical area of risk and opportunity in much of the change I had been involved in. And the effective management of this had been key in much of the success.
Humans are tribal and create barriers around their groups
Humans are tribal beings who form hierarchical groups for organisation, control, support, security and identity. Processes usually work much better within such groups than across them. But effective performance in war and in organisations involves processes that go across groups. And particularly where there are key differences in vested interests, values, or culture, major gaps and tensions often arise that create risks for the effective performance of the organisation, or the success of the change.
Such gaps might be between staff and customers, between font office and back office, between functional groups, between blue collar and white collar, or between groups who need to collaborate to deliver services to their customers or community. The gap between such groups is a common area for performance breakdown and also a major area of opportunity for performance improvement and strategic advantage – with the right leadership and facilitation.
It is so normal for human beings to create such behavioural and mind set barriers that one of the leading models for innovative strategy design deliberately employs processes to deal with this. Blue Ocean Strategy uses frameworks to get people to consider innovative options outside their group boundaries and mind sets by looking and working across groups, across disciplines, across industries, and even across time to encourage ground-breaking solutions to strategic problems.
The role of leaders as facilitators and role models to bridge gaps
Because it is so normal for people to not work well across groups, it is a particular responsibility of leaders to facilitate connections and mind set shifts. Unfortunately, many leaders see their role as only connecting up and down the hierarchy, not sideways and outwards.
Top and middle leaders have critical roles in facilitating connections across organisations, functions, customer and stakeholder groups. Failure to lead in this way is a key reason for failure of change to work. So leaders who are unsure of how to do this effectively need particular assistance if they are to remain in their leadership roles and sponsor change.
Leaders can reinforce and perpetuate silos or make it safe for staff to create connections and work across groups. Breaking down organisational silos and bringing people from different groups together to solve problems and improve performance can create breakthrough change and solve entrenched problems. But it needs leaders to initiate or role model this behaviour.
Other roles and functions that bridge gaps
Apart from top and middle managers, there are certain roles and groups in organisations that have cross-functional or cross-organisational responsibilities and are in positions to spot problems and support or facilitate bridge building to encourage effective working relationships and operations across the gaps. Such people include those working in human resources, project teams, change leaders, some government agencies, and other community coordination groups.
People in such roles need to have skills in identifying the dynamics and facilitating cross-group connections and relationship-building to support accountable leaders build the capability, relationships and processes that enable effective on-going operations. The challenge is often to ensure this becomes part of the normal operating rhythm of such leaders and groups so it becomes part of BAU and continues when projects finish, or the support is removed.
So whether it is the invasion of Normandy or implementation of new organisational programs, a secret to successful strategy and delivery, as well as ongoing day-to-day performance, is effective connections across the gaps between groups that need to work together to deliver results. This is a secret to exponential performance improvement, but leaders often need help with doing this effectively.
So I’d love to hear from you if you would like help with this in your team.
Susan Kehoe
Consultant | Coach | Change Leader
Work with Susan
Susan helps design and implement people-centred strategy, transformation and performance improvement. Her work involves challenging mind-sets, shifting culture, and engaging people to improve service delivery and performance. Her approach taps into the enormous unused potential of people in organisations to deliver exponentially better results with the right leadership, engagement and strategy.