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Commentary - McKinsey Quarterly
How GE is becoming a truly global network
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Overcoming silos requires end-to-end operating models and a strong dose of transparency, accountability, and coordination. But are these crucial moves enough?
Busted?
Matchboard
How silos damage customer experience
Silos don’t just show up in org charts—they take hold of minds and thinking.
Siloed stupid
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Fed up with turf wars, silos, and other company dysfunctions? Energize the “brokers,” who knit together your organization’s formal and informal networks.
Call your broker
In this edition:
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How GE is becoming a truly global network
Commentary - McKinsey Quarterly
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The role of networks in organizational change
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Balkanized
Go further by tackling the fragmentation in your company’s organizational networks, which comes about when employees neglect relationships with colleagues outside their regular work flow.
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The role of networks in organizational change
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Spanners
Then bridge the gaps by identifying “brokers,” people who boost information flow and collaboration between functions, departments, divisions, hierarchical and tenure levels, and physical locations.
How silos damage customer experience
Matchboard
Silo effect
You already know silos are the enemy of healthy organizations and strong economic performance.
The role of networks in organizational change
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
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83%
of executives said that silos exist in their companies
Mapping the value of employee collaboration
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Without a radical shift in everyday working behavior—in employees’ relationships with the company and with one another—silos will remain, and the sort of cross-industry and horizontal collaboration that companies like GE need to foster for growth is not going to happen.”
“
John G. Rice, former vice chairman of General Electric
of executives think silos have a negative effect
97%
Disguised example: connectivity report for Jane Smith, senior vice president (SVP),
Information sharing
Mentoring
Social interaction
Information sharing
Jane Smith
Peer group (other SVPs)
Entire office
You have slightly fewer ties than average for your peer group
Fewer people have identified you as a mentor than is average for your peer group
Mentoring
You have more ties than average for your peer group
Social interaction
Brokers are people who connect different subgroups in a network
Dive deeper
The role of networks in organizational change
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Densified
A broker strengthens ties between employees beyond their primary departments and functions—leading to more robust organizational networks.
Before:
After:
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Mapping the value of employee collaboration
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Bridging
Along the way, by using the network lens, you’ll learn what, where, and how to invest to bridge the gaps that contribute to your organization’s siloed behavior.
Gather
Clarify clusters of functional expertise dispersed in your company’s different
regions and businesses, then collect them
into agile “chapters.”
Measure
Learn the value created by people you have yet to recognize as central contributors, then rethink performance metrics and financial incentives.
Coach
Compare colleagues who are effective communicators to find the outliers who are less effective, then focus personalized coaching on the collaborative issues that are unique to each underperformer.
Hire
Evaluate collaborative skills for “hard skill” jobs such as data architects and scientists
to improve project execution and
customer satisfaction.
number of ties within the company