This document discusses how to nurture a collaborative culture by turning silos into bridges. It defines silos as divisions within an organization that can waste resources and jeopardize goals if not properly managed. While silos can create accountability, they also hinder collaboration. The document recommends focusing on customers to break down silos, and suggests coordination, cooperation, developing shared capabilities, and external connections to improve collaboration. Rather than trying to eliminate silos, organizations should aim to "ventilate" them by incentivizing collaboration, changing power structures, supporting collaborative work habits, providing tools and training, and streamlining processes to facilitate interaction across silos.

1. Nurturing a Collaborative Culture
Turning a Silo into a Bridge
Photo credit: Rahel Anne Bailie
Rahel Anne Bailie and Christian Gericke

2. Photo of presenter here
Rahel Anne Bailie
Chief Knowledge Officer, Scroll LLP
15+ years content strategy
10+ years tech communication
Consulting / Instruction / Author
scroll.co.uk
rahelab
ScrollUK
rahelab
ScrollLondon
rahennebailie
Scroll-LLP

3. Photo of presenter here
Christian Gericke
CMO, SMASHDOCs
20+ years in the content industry
Father of 2 daughters
www.smashdocs.net
Cgericke
christiangerickeSMASHDOCs
christiangericke

4. What is a silo?

5. Waste Resources
Kill productivity
Jeopardize goals
Silos can be dangerous

6. Silos can be beneficial
Creates accountability
Delegates responsibility
Makes space for expertise

7. Different functions
Operating at capacity
Professional territorialism
Why silos exist
Governance
Incentives
???

8. Silos in the workplace
Five Steps to Break Out of Your Organization’s Business Silo Mentality

9. Content silos
Training
Marketing
TechComm
Support

10. Gain efficiency
Gain accuracy
Better brand consistency
Why get rid of silos
Increase the bottom line

11. Alternatives to silos
Customer
focus

12. Customer focus takes collaboration

13. Challenge of consistency across a customer journey

14. Customers see content, not your silos

15. Helps companies transcend internal silos in
service of higher-value customer solutions
Coordination Cooperation
Capability Connection
Collaboration
Silo Busting: How to Execute on the Promise of Customer Focus – Ranjay Gulati, HBR

16. Coordination
Establish structural mechanisms and
processes that allow employees to improve
their focus on the customer by harmonizing
information and activities across units

17. Cooperation
Encourage people in all parts of the company—
through cultural means, incentives, and the
allocation of power—to work together in the
interest of customer needs

18. Capability development
Ensure that enough people in the organization
have the skills to deliver customer-focused
solutions, and define a clear career path for
employees with those skills

19. Connection
Develop relationships with external partners to
increase the value of solutions cost effectively

20. Ventilation, not containment
There is nothing about [silos] that inherently
inhibits interaction with people in other silos.
[It’s] human nature to want to make
sense of big, complex systems by
breaking them down into component
parts.
Organizational silos don’t need busting.
They need ventilating - Shel Holtz

21. How to ventilate the silos

22. Provide new incentives and metrics

23. Change power structures – from the top down

24. Change and support long-term work habits

25. Speed + consistency = a win

26. Provide the right tools and training

27. Streamline to support collaboration

28. Take away: be a source of light

29. Bridge your silos: make towers instead
Thank you
Questions?
Discussion?