Sales thinks operations is blocking revenue. Operations thinks sales makes impossible promises. Meanwhile, your customers are caught in the crossfire. Sound familiar?
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
- George Bernard Shaw (who clearly worked in a siloed organization)
Key Takeaways:
- Silos are a leadership problem—not a sales problem, not an operations problem, not an IT problem. YOUR problem.
- Silos stifle communication and collaboration (and breed resentment faster than you can say “that’s not my department”).
- Silos are wildly inefficient—like having multiple drawbridges that nobody has the key to.
- Silos lead to terrible customer experiences (because customers don’t care about your org chart).
- Silos kill growth—you can’t scale dysfunction.
- Silos are everywhere—and if you don’t think you have them, you’re not looking hard enough.
- High performers are often the epicenter of silo creation (because they’re too busy being righteous to be collaborative).
Questions to Consider:
- Where do silos exist in our organization? (Be specific. “None” is not an acceptable answer.)
- How can we lead the change necessary to break down the silos? (Notice I said “we,” not “they.”)
- Are we the cause of the silos? (Uncomfortable question, but you probably already know the answer.)
- Who will take the lead in breaking down our silos? (If your answer is “someone else,” that’s the problem.)
- Do we foster collaboration or competition between departments? (Competition means I win, you lose—and eventually, everyone loses.)
- Are we protecting high performers who create silos? (Yes, even the sales rockstar who “makes the numbers.”)
- What’s our plan for team members who refuse to cooperate? (Hope is not a strategy.)
Medieval Italy Had It Right (For Medieval Times)
My wife and I traveled to Italy to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We rented a car and visited small towns in the Tuscany region. It was magical and a step back in time.
It was fascinating to see the walled cities with drawbridges and towers. The cities were fortified to prevent nearby rival cities from plundering their people and belongings.
One city in particular, San Gimignano, triggers the imagination about the past. The city has 72 towers that represented a family’s wealth and served as a lookout for opposing armies. Back in medieval times, the threat was not another country but a neighboring city. The fastest path to wealth was to plunder and capture more territory. The city down the road was the enemy.
It made sense then. Walls kept you safe. Towers gave you a strategic advantage. Trust no one outside your walls.
But Your Company Isn’t Medieval Italy (Even Though It Acts Like It)
Thankfully, times have changed in many countries. Unfortunately, not in many businesses.
IT has their agenda despite the requests from operations. AP wants payment at all costs regardless of the impact on customer relations. Sales makes promises that operations can’t keep. Operations blocks deals that sales could close. Everyone has their towers. Everyone is protecting their turf.
The walls put up between departments ensure mediocre results. Organizations that realize their full potential eliminate the walls and replace them with communication and collaboration. (Revolutionary concept, I know.)
What Are Organizational Silos? (And Why They’re Killing You)
The most common silo is between sales and operations.
Sales believes that operations prevents them from selling more. Operations believes sales makes too many promises to customers. These departments have a natural tension that can lead to resentment and eventually silos. Both become righteous for their “just cause”—revenue versus profits.
Add a couple of strong leaders with competing priorities, and you have a recipe for an all-out war.
But here’s what most leaders miss: The customer doesn’t care about your org chart. They don’t care that sales made a promise operations can’t keep. They don’t care that IT has a different agenda than operations. They just know their experience sucks and they’re looking for alternatives.
Silos don’t just kill collaboration—they kill growth, customer satisfaction, and eventually, the business itself.
The Uncomfortable Truth: This Is a Leadership Problem
The unfortunate truth is that leadership is responsible for allowing silos to form. (Yes, you. Not them. You.)
The great news? Leadership can break them down.
Silos don’t appear overnight. They’re built brick by brick, with every unanswered email, every turf battle, every time you let a high performer act like a lone wolf because “they make the numbers.” You allowed it. You probably encouraged it by fostering competition instead of collaboration.
Competition means I win, you lose. It might deliver results in the short term, but it leads to destructive behavior long-term. Competitive organizations eventually implode.
Where to Start? (Three Steps to Demolish Your Towers)
Step One: Objectively Assess Where Silos Exist
The first step to breaking down silos between departments and individuals is to objectively assess where they exist. Who is withholding information from whom? Who has a beef with whom?
Too often, we turn a blind eye to a lack of cooperation between departments. Sales and operations don’t get along, but leadership chooses not to address the discord. (Because addressing it is uncomfortable, and we’d rather hope it magically resolves itself.)
Identify the departments and individuals that are silos of information or regularly lack cooperation—who don’t play nice—with others.
Be specific:
- Does IT ignore requests from operations?
- Does finance block sales deals over minor issues?
- Does marketing operate in its own universe?
- Does your sales rockstar refuse to collaborate with anyone?
Write it down. Because if you can’t name it, you can’t fix it.
Step Two: Set Expectations (Even with Your High Performers)
It can be difficult to address silos because they’re often connected with a high performer. High performers—especially in sales—become righteous and focus on themselves, their department, or their business unit.
This is where leadership must have the courage to address the situation.
It starts with an individual conversation to discuss the concerns. We want to attack the issues and never the individuals. Unity, teamwork, and collaboration are key areas to discuss. Ask questions and listen to understand. Be clear about expectations moving forward.
Here’s what that sounds like:
- “I appreciate your contributions to the team. Your numbers are excellent.”
- “However, collaboration is non-negotiable. We need you to work with operations, not against them.”
- “What obstacles are preventing that collaboration?”
- “Here’s what needs to change, and here’s the timeline.”
Notice we didn’t say, “You’re being difficult and everyone hates working with you.” We focused on behavior and expectations, not character assassination.
Step Three: Communicate Expectations to the Entire Organization
The lack of communication led to silos. Breaking down silos requires communication. (Shocking, I know.)
Leadership must take the lead in communicating expectations and monitoring progress. This isn’t a one-time announcement. This is consistent, relentless communication about:
- Why collaboration matters
- What collaboration looks like
- How we’re measuring it
- What happens when people don’t collaborate
And here’s the hard part: If the withholding of information or righteous behavior persists, you must move quickly to let go of uncooperative team members.
Yes, even the high performer. Yes, even the sales rockstar. Yes, even the person who’s been here since the beginning.
If nothing changes, nothing changes. And if you let toxic behavior persist because someone “makes the numbers,” you’ve just told everyone else in the organization that collaboration is optional.
Foster Collaboration, Not Competition
Silos are the result of a lack of leadership and specifically a failure to lead the culture. Instead of fostering collaboration, too many leaders foster competition.
You thought you were motivating people. You thought a little healthy competition would drive results. Instead, you created warring factions who care more about “winning” against each other than serving customers.
The simplest way to avoid silos is through open communication. Foster a culture of cooperation and shared success. Encourage spirited debate to improve all aspects of the business—but make it clear that once a decision is made, everyone rows in the same direction.
The Ideal Scenario: Prevention
The ideal scenario is to prevent silos from being created in the first place. How?
- Hire for collaboration, not just competence
- Reward teamwork, not just individual performance
- Create cross-functional projects and teams
- Make information accessible to everyone who needs it
- Address turf battles immediately, not after they’ve festered for months
- Model collaboration at the leadership level (because your team is watching)
Tear Down Your Walls
Silos will stunt the growth of your organization. Leaders must be vigilant if silos are to be avoided.
High performers and hard-charging leaders are often the epicenter of silo origination. (The irony is that the people who seem the most valuable are often causing the most damage.)
Your medieval Italian city-states need to come down. Your drawbridges need to open. Your towers need to be dismantled.
Not because it’s comfortable. Not because it’s easy. But because siloed organizations don’t scale, don’t grow, and eventually don’t survive.
You built the walls. You can tear them down.
The question is: Will you?
Or will you keep protecting your high-performing lone wolves, hoping that somehow, magically, collaboration will spontaneously appear?
Your move, leader. The walls are waiting to be torn down!