#05 Silos: Beyond the Org Chart: What Really Drives Success

Exploring Organizational Structure's Impact on Silo Mentality

Good news first: you can have an impact on reducing silo mentality even no matter what your job title is.

Why?

Because there is always the organizational chart and the real human structure in an organization.

🍏 Who worked together a few years ago?

🍏 Whose partner works in a different department?

🍏 Whose child is doing an internship in another team?

Once you take a close look, you will spot many connections. And those are the ones that keep companies in business.

Companies achieve goals NOT BECAUSE of the organizational structure but DESPITE the structure.

A colleague said that to me once. That means there is always a mix at play. Some communication is forced by the organizations structure. Just as much collaboration takes place due to the personal network of the individual.

Have you seen a dear colleague change roles and leaves the team? You probably stayed in touch. You meet for lunch, share challenges and thoughts. The longer you stay in one company, the better your personal network. It will help you achieve your goals IF you treat colleagues with respect (that means no gossip what so ever).

But what about the org chart?

I have lived in an organizational structure with several dimensions:

🍏 Functional departments where people with similar skills work in one team.

🍏 Product teams consisting of colleagues who work on one specific product.

🍏 Cross-functional project teams for shorter initiatives e.g. future product experiments

🍏 Cross-site functional teams e.g. the sales teams in the US and in Germany. They might share the same processes or tools (if they are well organized)

🍏 Centralized support functions like procurement or IT support, in-house or outsourced.

This leads to the fact that one employee has several reporting lines.

A direct functional manager,

a product owner,

a project lead,

a global (cross-site) functional lead,

a global quality lead…

That makes clear: No matter how hard you try, you will struggle to find a structure that is good for everything. Hence, the leadership team need to pick where to focus.

Side note:

Reading this hopefully triggers some empathy in you for the constant re-structuring. Every new manager wants to find a better version of what someone did before. Boundary conditions change. Those can be

• changes in the market,

• the number of available managers (someone needs a promotion)

• another sites changes structure and your site must align…

There are a thousand reasons for re-structuring.

How to ensure smooth connections across the organization

Collaboration & Communication are key.

Staff and leadership can contribute by

• building relationships across all levels and departments and sites

• learning and teaching how to collaborate well (There is always a better way!)

• talking about goals, mission and vision frequently

• initiating and participating in cross-functional collaboration

• cultivate a learning culture and a culture of knowledge sharing

Start with one area that feels easiest to you.

To make a long story short

There is no ultimate organizational structure. People collaborate if they feel human connection and share a purpose. That is independent of the org chart.

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Do you agree? What do you think?