All of this talk about paradigm shifts and out of the box thinking is starting to wear just a little bit thin. We have all heard it so often, for so many years, in so many different situations that it has become a seriously depreciated asset whose value has plummeted with each subsequent uttering. The truth is, why are we so worried about getting outside of our box when many of us can't even get outside of our department?

Organization after organization – from Canada to Kazakhstan, from Albania to Australia - have become frightenly compartmentalized – bent inward – shaped into neat little silos, the walls of which seem to have been reinforced with iron will. The risk is simply that the phrase "dismantling silos" holds about as much water today as other jargon words like – solutions, empowerment and transparency. The premise of the argument has been so slowly and so completely worked to death, that the term now lacks any sense of its original urgency or purpose. Call it what you may. Label it how you wish. The problem remains. Silos are still wreaking havoc on organizations day after day. Does anyone care?

Fallen Silos

In a valiant attempt to highlight the need for a radical and thorough extermination of compartmentalized organizations, Robert Herbold, former COO of Microsoft has coined a new term – Fiefdom in his book "The Fiefdom Syndrome"
– and we like it a lot.

"Fiefdom" speaks directly to the problem and lays the blame for the perpetuation of this phenomenon at the feet of the leaders, not the followers. His new book, "The Fiefdom Syndrome", is the call to arms that many of us feel, like a forgotten library book, is long overdue. The business world is moving too fast for small terrorist groups within organisations to hold everyone else hostage by exercising proprietary control over vital information. Let's declare war on silos!

Department of Redundancy Department

One sure way to identify a 'fiefdom-laden' organization is to look for redundancy. It is usually not too hard to find. In most dysfunctional organizations, there is a rather blatant tendency to create policies and procedures within departments that replicate or even work against the broader practices of the organization overall.

We never fail to be amazed by the number of leaders who believe their first order of business is to install their own systems and record-keeping mechanisms. Systems installed to give them what they want; when they want it; the way they want it. Let's wake up. On what planet can members of the same tribe talk to each other unless there is some sort of reliable, easily understood common language?

Broken Telephone Syndrome

Just as in this age-old children's game, Fiefdoms will inevitably lead to poor, inconsistent, confused or, even worse – just outright wrong information flows within organizations. These blockages of seamless communication, in our hyper-connected, digital, real-time world can cost an organization literally millions of dollars in lost revenue, missed opportunities and underperformance.

If we are not careful, organisations will feel the need to install policing agencies just to keep the information flowing accurately and factually. We will need the equivalent of the FBI to watch the CIA, the CIA to watch the RCMP and the RCMP to watch the SAS. What craziness. Let's liberate information and access to information and, by so doing, eliminate the risk of distorted or partial flows.

In Our Opinion
The Beacon Group's Keys to Breaking Your Fiefdom

Invite the outside in – Why not simply flip things on their head. Rather than build walls - open gates. In every meeting you hold from now on, invite at least one member from another department to attend. That way you will have the benefits of (a) goodwill, (b) an outside voice, (c) a fresh perspective and (d) you will have significantly increased the chances that the rest of the organization will actually learn something from your meeting.

Go walk about – In the same vein as inviting others to your meetings, go traveling. Invite yourself into "their" meetings. At a minimum, it will show you are interested and perhaps even incite a reciprocal walk about by them. In addition, get out of the building. Go visiting. Visit suppliers, vendors, competitors as often as possible to learn how they conduct their operations and then bring that knowledge back to your organization.

Demand super-fast technology – Want to break the walls down? Crank up the heat. Things moving too slowly? Turn up the dial. Information taking too long to get to you? Lubricate the channels. You should not only have information flowing to you but it should be coming quicker and quicker every day. Your team, your department, and your organization should be connected to the broader world with the fastest fibre optical cable you can lay your hands on. Out fox the fox.

Publish everything – Set the tone by becoming the best darn newspaper or magazine in town. Publish everything. We mean it. Open the valves to full steam. At monthly town hall meetings devote a portion of your time to "Lessons learned form others". Make it a priority to learn about new developments and procedures that work for others and may work for you.

Our Monthly Rant
Don't You Just Hate the Sales Department?

In every organization, this type of trash talk happens daily. One department speaking badly about another to the point where it slips unconsciously into a daily habit such that people in your silo – sorry fiefdom – need their fix.

Whether it is their inefficiency, or poor direction, or slowness - it gets talked about. Wait, it doesn't get talked about, it gets gossiped about. Gossip is the worst part of fiefdoms. Conversations, murmurs and whispering take up a large percentage of an organization's time.

These conversations can last for years – just like a bad soap opera. From now on, you must consider these conversations as discrimination, and hurtful to the organization overall. From now on, call the gossipers on their bad talk. Out them publicly. Talk to the department that is being talked about. Let them know. Ultimately, bring the two parties together and clear the air once and for all. This can no longer be tolerated. You can no longer be your own worst enemy. Remember, people live down to the labels we assign to them.