I work on many projects with many different organisations. Corporations, authorities, not for profits and small to medium businesses and I often find that I’m cast adrift between mountains of giant silos.
Silos form when the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
I’m not casting aspersions (or aspidistras) at all the hard working people I interact with. I’m just making an observation. Silos form when people are rushing to meet change.
Change happens rapidly these days. Policies change, then procedures or ways of doing things. Regulations and laws change when governments change or government policy changes. Change happens when businesses are growing exponentially and new people are brought on board.
Silos also form when there’s a lack of communication across organisations, strategic business units (SBU’s) and teams.
Silos can also form when people don’t share.
Silos affect content developers too. We can be working away using some accepted template, or creating content in a suggested way and then … it’s not quite right.
Can this be a problem? Yes and no.
Clever consultants can pick a silo a milo off (sorry, it rhymed.)
Clever consultants communicate widely.
Clever consultants are flexible and don’t go into spasms of disappointment and take things personally regarding their work.
My mum told me that a truly sane person has an ingrained ability to change their minds!
I tell my kid all the time, life is full of paradoxes … be flexible and open minded.
And smile a lot : )
This is a great analogy Simon. This is actually visionary. Your a man of magnificent metaphors.