How to overcome a ‘silo mentality’ to ensure growth outcomes

By Gerhard Hartman, Vice President: Medium Business, Sage Africa & Middle East

Everyone working for a large corporateis familiar withthe frustrations of organisational silos.

As we adapt toa new hybrid way of working with a growing number of employees working from homes or from other offices around the world, organisational silos remain a problem that is keeping CEOs up at night!Different departments or teams cannot – or do not – interact with one another.

What silos end up doing is preventingthe sharing of resources and information, making it impossible to build and sustain trust, transfer ideas, collaborate, and ultimately, achieve organisationalgoals. 

In your own daily work environment, you may have experienced this whena project you were workingon for weeks wascancelled because a seconddepartment was doing something similar.

Or perhaps you spent months trying to solve a crucial business issue, only to discover much later that someone on a different team has the skills or resources to solve your problem in minutes. 

If silos are such a challenge, why are they still so common in larger Middle East organisations?

Undoubtedly, breaking down boundaries within an organisation is challengingas there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem. 

These challenges are not about technology – although, an integrated corporate application suite might formpart of the solution.

Instead, these challenges are linked to cultural issues and a lack of communication and collaboration.So, what does it take to break down organisational silos? It all starts with the three Cs: 

Collaborate effectively: Through introducing collaboration tools across your business, you can help everyone invarious departments to communicate better – more employeesare now working remotely, which calls for an urgent adoption ofcollaborative technology.

Through working remotely and collaboratively, employees caneasily provide feedback to colleagues and managers. Doing so, fosters a culture of informationand knowledge sharing. 

Create cross-functional teams: In creating cross-functional teams, you open upopportunities for different departments to interact and work together, thereby also ensuring shared accountability. When your team members get to know people from other teams, they’re more likely to ask oneanother for help because they know what skills or competencies exist within the organisation. 

1. Collaborate effectively: Through introducing collaboration tools across your business, you can help everyone invarious departments to communicate better – more employeesare now working remotely, which calls for an urgent adoption ofcollaborative technology.Through working remotely and collaboratively, employees caneasily provide feedback to colleagues and managers. Doing so, fosters a culture of informationand knowledge sharing. 

1. Create cross-functional teams: In creating cross-functional teams, you open upopportunities for different departments to interact and work together, thereby also ensuring shared accountability. When your team members get to know people from other teams, they’re more likely to ask oneanother for help because they know what skills or competencies exist within the organisation. 

1. Cultivate common goals: In establishing a shared organisation-widegoal, different individuals and teamsare more inclinedto collaborate because they’re working towards the same outcome.
   1. To ensure the effectiveness of this approach, communicate with each member of your team. Everyone should understand their role in achieving the desired end goal.   

View from the top  

The organisation’s leadership team must be the first to champion any effortto eliminate silos,  considering it is currently compelled to switchto new ways of working due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The leadership team needs to be responsible aboutbuildinga shared vision that aligns with the company’s goals and trickles down to managers and employees.

Only once you’ve changed the mentality of those working within your organisation will you be able to encourage everyone to successfully and effectively work in synch. 

Sage

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With our partners, Sage is trusted by millions of customers worldwide to deliver the best cloud technology and support. Our years of experience mean that our colleagues and partners understand how to serve our

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