Love your silos!

Rigid silo structures, struggles over power and budgets, and an unwavering "we’ve-always-done-it-this-way"-mentality are all too common symptoms of communication barriers within an organization. The causes can often be attributed to the human factor: Everyone wants to contribute to success – if it weren’t for "the others".

Text by Mathias Maul

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Love your silos!

Image: DNY59/istockphoto.com

Organizations are responsible for creating and nurturing a culture and infrastructure that facilitates smooth communication. If their attempts are only half-hearted, the result will be half-hearted as well, leading to communication barriers and frustration: Employees huddle together in ad-hoc units – silos – where they are among themselves. This may feel good for the moment, but in the long run, silos lead to decreased productivity, loss of motivation and resignation.

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