The Silo Mentality
by Yasushi Kusume
‘While collaboration is increasingly important in our ever-more-connected world, working against this is the rise of the ‘silo mentality’, where people collaborate within their own division, unit, or team inside a larger group, but don’t share information more widely.'
Your Brain at Work, David Rock
For Brent Gleeson and Megan Rozo, the silo mentality has been a persistent issue for over 40 years, constantly blocking departmental collaboration and efficiency. But, they note, these silos typically stem from conflicted leadership rather than employee immaturity or lack of training. Companies wanting to overcome it, to create scalable, realistic solutions, need effective leadership that embraces common goals and unified vision.
I agree with this... partially. Because while I recognize the importance of a shared vision and goals, I believe this issue goes further than management. For me, it’s a mentality deeply rooted in human nature.
Us and Them
Success in our social human world often requires us to cooperate within a group, so that we can then compete effectively against another group. So note Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer, in Friend & Foe. They say this leads us to trust the members of our own group and distrust the members of other groups. And groups can be formed easily.
Take, for example, teams formed on a company outing for no other purpose than relaxation away from the office. You’ll find yourself bonding quickly with colleagues you barely know because you now possess a shared goal: beating the other teams. You’ve created a common enemy. Galinsky and Schweitzer would argue that this is a fundamental aspect of human nature. So, says David Rock, is the silo mentality.
The trust hormone
In his book Your Brain at Work, he explains that people naturally form safe tribes with close colleagues. They then work well within these groups, while avoiding those they don't know well. The main reason for the difficulty in collaboration, he says, is that the human brain subconsciously determines whether each person we meet is a friend or foe. This is partly due to oxytocin, a natural hormone produced in the hypothalamus, and believed by many psychologists to play a key role in connections between like-minded individuals.
But psychologists also suspect there’s a downside to the hormone. That while it can foster and encourage trust, it can also promote aggression towards others. And within a company, this can affect more than interpersonal relationships: it can affect the very business the company was set up to conduct. Take, for example, the act of handing over a project.
Not my baby
It’s not unknown, unfortunately, for a project to languish because no one else in the company wants to take it on. They give in to ‘It’s not my baby’ mentality. They want nothing to do with it because they didn’t originate it. Conversely, a project can also become stuck because the people who came up with it don’t want to share in the ‘glory’ of something successful. If they’ve developed a great concept into a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), they’re wary of handing it over to a business team that might then put in more effort and take more risks with it than they did.
Result in both cases? A lost or underdeveloped project. Which begs the question: what’s the solution?
Different individuals
One good way of overcoming this problem is to involve many different individuals throughout the project. By not starting with one group and hoping/expecting to pass it on to the next, you foster a feeling of shared satisfaction. You make (possibly) opposing groups into one group dedicated to achieving a company-wide goal. And in the process, this fostering of a sense of fairness can boost dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin levels in the brain, which in turn will offer an extra layer of satisfaction and fulfilment.
A contradiction
So where does this leave us, if the creation of friends and foes is inherent in human nature? Does it mean the silo mentality is something organizations will just have to live with? It might appear so, given how the corporate world often pursues contradictory objectives. For instance, companies often stress Profit & Loss (P&L) responsibility, which necessitates clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which inevitably requires delineating boundaries—a process that can’t help but foster silos.
And yet while most senior managers recognize the need to resolve the silo mentality, it's perplexing that they often encourage its very creation. The use of fast-track promotion cycles – moving employees up through the company within 2 to 3 years – is thought to be indicative of great internal talent. But such an approach often leaves individuals with insufficient time to cultivate the long-term relationships – in and outside their immediate groups – that foster full and creative cooperation.
Make friends, not enemies
To be clear: I am not opposed to well-defined governance, P&L responsibility, KPIs, or fast-track promotions. However, if these practices are encouraged, it's disingenuous to pretend that the silo mentality can be effectively resolved, because they often contribute to its very perpetuation.
What I am advocating, for those seeking to foster relationships outside their immediate groups, to break down the silo mentality, is the regular, steady demonstration and approval of competence, fairness, and close cooperation. In the corporate environment, a bottom-up approach focusing on these key points might well be the most effective way of turning potential 'enemies' outside your group into effective, cooperative allies.