Someone reading this just had a vision of a wrecking ball smashing a grain silo on a rural farm somewhere in middle America. Although organizational silos get their name from this agricultural reference, we should be shocked and appalled at the use of this image when talking about our organizations. One definition of a silo is “a self-contained vessel that lets in neither light nor air.” And we use this to describe organizational structures?
Sure, organizing around specialization and specific skills is helpful. It even satisfies our need for safety and security by protecting against outside forces. At the same time, it impedes innovation and engagement. If you were standing inside a silo talking, you would only hear the echo of your own voice. Even if we need to create these types of organizational silos, we can build conveyers between silos to cross-pollinate ideas, build organization-wide skills, and ultimately have deeper engagement.