Organizational Silos and the Execution Gap

Are your employees pursuing departmental goals at the expense of pursuing company goals?  As an organization grows this problem becomes more pronounced and company alignment is jeopardized as more hierarchical layers are added and inter-departmental physical separation increases thereby decreasing employee interaction.

The strategy that was most probably formulated at the top may not trickle down through the organization’s layers if the people further down the chain do not understand it or buy-in to it. If the strategy is not broken down effectively with each department understanding their role in achieving the overarching goals, an execution gap will emerge.

Furthermore, if there is poor interdepartmental communication and collaboration, over time the silos will calcify, and the resulting fragmentation will derail even the most well-crafted strategy. Your employees may be diligent and hard working. Unfortunately, if their actions are not ‘in harmony’ and departments are not ‘pulling in the same direction,’ your strategy will fail to succeed. There is no overarching shared vision to unite them.

Revisit your organizational communication plan

If there is no formal structure for how internal communication is conducted, it creates space, and this space can be filled with misunderstandings. Those misunderstandings slow down business processes and creates frustration. Inadequate internal corporate communication can lead to issues with confidence, confusion, and disengagement among employees. As the employees find the structure of communication hard to grasp, they will fill in the blanks for themselves which can derail strategy implementation.

For internal communication in an organization to be considered effective it should be aligned with the company’s vision, objectives, and goals and overall strategy. Ensure the communication strategy encompasses both internal and external communication strategies as this is a key pillar for growth. This strategy should be a ‘living’ document that grows with the company. The larger a company becomes, the greater the complexity of the communication structures within the company. Redefining communication pathways and improving communication flows can help break down silos.

Ouvrir les lignes de communication

The job of a CEO is to define and articulate a company’s mission and take an active role in fulfilling that mission. Are the lines of communication open? When a CEO engages with only his most senior advisers and executives and is inaccessible or disconnected from ninety percent of his employees then he may miss out on many potentially brilliant ideas. Additionally, many innovative ideas may not be voiced because employees lack the confidence to speak up in the presence of the CEO. Effective leadership that spurs innovation and risk taking is about opening the lines of communication from top to bottom. Is the company’s structure and culture designed to foster innovation? The leader does not necessarily need to be highly innovative. However, by championing and supporting the efforts of others, a good leader can provide the necessary guidance, backing and sponsorship. By instituting forums and roundtables with employees and other stakeholders, a CEO can allow the voices at all levels of the organization to be heard. Another idea is to create a team that serves as the eyes and ears of the CEO that penetrates all levels of the organization. This will help CEOs to be aware of the situation on the ground and allow them to act more quickly to seize opportunities that may arise.

Set up cross functional networks to improve collaboration

Employees may respond to the strategy differently. Some may be passionate advocates while others may be very uncomfortable about change. To effectively harness group synergy and break down silos, consider creating cross- functional teams to execute specific projects in the strategy. Also encourage regular forums where different departments can report on strategy execution and raise issues and impediments to goal achievement. Where possible, departments should have shared goals that they need to work towards and should have clarity and alignment on their interpretation of these goals and their specific roles.

By diligently breaking down silos and ensuring your strategy is executable, owned and accepted by all individual stakeholders, and organizational communication and collaboration is optimized, you will close the execution gap. Your company is the orchestra and as the conductor, you must ensure all the members are playing the same tune.

Article de Shailja Sharma, membre du corps enseignant du SBS et coach en leadership et en carrière