Breaking Down Organizational Silos Essential for Transformation and Growth
By One of the biggest barriers to business and network transformation is the dreaded silo – the real and perceived divisions in an organization that impact pretty much all aspects of operation. Silos are not a new concept and that’s the main reason they present such a problem. They’re a remnant of an outdated approach to business, technology and change and they simply don’t work in the new digital networking economy.
Silos can occur just about anywhere in an organization, but are most commonly found at the operations level. And according to a recent blog post from Fiber Mountain, a company that focuses on the transformation of today’s networks and data centers, silos at the operations level can bring transformation, change and growth to an abrupt halt.
A general rule of thumb when it comes to business operations is that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Those tasked with keeping a company up and running have processes and procedures in place and are reluctant to make changes, particularly if they don’t see an immediate benefit. Unfortunately, the digital transformation is impacting every aspect of business and change is necessary for survival. Businesses must transform their networks to remain competitive and that means changing all aspects of business, including operations.
The challenge, then, is in how to get operations teams on board with change, breaking down silos and getting an entire organization to embrace network transformation. Clearly, this challenge can’t be tackled overnight but rather through a series of steps and as part of a well thought out process for carefully disrupting business operations.
A good first step, according to Fiber Mountain, is to create a corporate culture that embraces experimentation along with fostering inter-departmental communications and transparency. By opening the lines of communication, processes can be steadily overhauled and restructured at all levels within an organization to achieve immediate and long-term goals. And by taking a systematic and incremental approach to change that includes proposals and testing, operations teams can be part of the process and gain a full understanding of the benefits of transformation to themselves as well as the company at large.
Silos take years to develop and become entrenched in corporate culture, so it takes time and energy to break them down and effectively change the way business is being conducted. By making slow and steady changes to corporate culture, getting all teams and departments involved with change and digital transformation and keeping communication channels open, companies can break down organizational silos and barriers and embrace the path to network and technological transformation.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
