Life does not always fit into the official descriptions of what people are supposed to do. Tett argues, ‘Things fall between the cracks. While silos appear to offer security and control, they can also lead to simplification and rigid thinking. Yet, often, the classifications said more about the European observers than the complex local realities of their subjects. In observing, naming and categorizing foreign cultures, animals, plant specimens and geographies, they felt a sense of mastery-and power-over the unfamiliar things they named. This was something that the Victorians loved to do at the height of 19 th century expansionism. If you grew up in a Western country, you’ve probably been immersed in a culture that organizes, classifies and categorises the world in terms of silos. , New Learning Environments for the 21st Century Embracing messy realities: moving beyond a silo mentality It is at the edge that most innovation occurs and where we can discern patterns that indicate new kinds of opportunities and challenges. Silo working is often a result of a siloed organizational culture that does not provide opportunities for collaboration or encourage employees’ buy-in to a unified goal. In this respect, a silo mentality is not necessarily a consciously chosen mentality. Although they might welcome opportunities to share information and knowledge across traditional boundaries, their organisation’s structure, culture and training may not facilitate this way of working.
Indeed, groups and individuals may work in silos without realizing that they are doing so. , TED Talk, Get comfortable with being uncomfortableįor Kate Turner, director of Motivational Leadership, working in silos means that groups ‘ do not want to share information or knowledge with other individuals they work with.’ Although Turner is right to reflect on the lack of collaboration that occurs in siloed organisations, her point regarding the intentional nature of silo working, as something that employees actively choose, requires further discussion. All comfort has done is maintain the status quo. Keeping things the way they’ve been is comfortable. Additionally, although they might be a specialist in their particular field, they might fail to connect what they are doing to the work of other individuals or departments. In other words, they lack what is called ‘fluid intelligence’: the capacity to think flexibly across boundaries. Indeed, a person who thinks in terms of silos might struggle to see beyond established ways of doing things. A silo mentality is a way of thinking that is rigid and somewhat simplistic. While the phrase ‘working in silos’ may refer to a kind of tribalism within a company, it can also refer to the way a person thinks. Steven Poole argues, furthermore, that ‘ silos exist when people in different parts of an organisation don’t talk to each other or share information enough’. Gillian Tett, an anthropologist turned financial journalist, ‘ silos are cultural phenomena, which arise out of the systems we use to classify and organize the world ’. It is often employed as a metaphor for groups of people (e.g., a team is a ‘container’ of colleagues) who work independently from other groups.Īccording to Dr. What does working in silos mean? In simple terms, working in silos means operating in a kind of bubble-on your own or as part of an insular team or department.Īlthough the historical definition of a silo is a container (traditionally used on farms for storing grain or cattle food), the word also has a more abstract meaning today.
0 kommentar(er)
