Ducks In A Row: Smashing Horizontal (And Vertical) Silos
by Miki SaxonLast week I described way to use an innovation wiki to juice creativity and garner ideas from all parts of the company. In the comments Jennifer Brown said, “…[is a] platform across the entire enterprise wherein the innovation “conversation” occurs – not just team by team/vertical by vertical, but across verticals that typically don’t talk to each other (hence leading to silos) or collaborate. …harness the power of the workforce, break the silo’d thinking of functional structures, and revolutionize business models.”
I agree, but done with a small innovative twist an innovation wiki will break down not only departmental silos, but also the insidious horizontal silos that are based on position and education.
Personally, I loathe horizontal silos and consider them second only to politics on the corporate stupidity index.
More times than I can count I’ve seen the ideas of an engineer 1 or 2 discounted or ignored by the 3s and senior engineers—of course, that’s better than stealing them, although that happens, too.
The attitude seems to be one of ‘your brain is incapable of any creative thinking until you are at least at my pay grade’, which is idiotic.
People’s brains work differently; some see what is, others see possible improvements and a few see around corners, but that sight has little to do with position. Steve Jobs saw around the corner of the personal computer market before there was a personal computer market and certainly before he had any credibility what so ever.
Nor is it always about training and education. 20 odd years ago I redesigned two street intersection where I lived in San Francisco, but I didn’t suggest the solutions to the traffic engineers—I knew they wouldn’t listen because I have no training. Instead, I sneaked both ideas in through someone I know who was ‘accepted’ and both are still in effect today.
Silos are built of egos, which is why, vertical or horizontal, they’re so difficult to break down.
The best solution is for the CEO to build a culture that values everybody’s ideas equally, but technology offers a leg up on this.
When building your innovation wiki assign a random ID to each suggestion—sort of like match.com. They must be completely random so that level, grade and even department are totally obscured. Each idea has a different ID, so that when a person’s idea is used the next one is still anonymous; limit access of the actual name to a few top executives.
That anonymity truly levels the playing field and means that each idea is considered strictly on its merits, not on the merits of the person who thought of it. It also encourages people to way outside-the-box thinking and to post ideas without worrying about appearing silly, pushy or arrogant for offering ideas outside of their personal expertise.
Just be sure that the contributors of ideas that are used, whether all, in part or as a springboard to something else, receive plenty of public acknowledgement, kudos and anything else you’re in a position to do.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: ZedBee|Zoë Power on flickr
May 12th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I think you have a really great solution to one of the biggest problems in many companies.
We emphasize everyday in my company that we value everyone’s idea. We actively solicit ideas from all levels within the organization and track them no mater how un practical or realistic they may seem (you never know).
Your idea takes it a step further and eliminates any of the bias that managers tend to put on ideas from people below them.
I’m curious if others on hear have actually implemented this strategy?
May 14th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Hello Ms. Saxon,
I think this is a wonderful idea and we are working to immediately implement it on our company wiki. Thank you for this. I will let you know how it goes within the next few weeks.
KG
May 14th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Hi Ben, sorry for the delay in responding. I implemented it at several young companies over the years, but they have since merged, been acquired or died during the dot bomb explosion, so I have no way of putting you in touch with them.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Hi KG, I’m delighted that you’re implementing the idea. We’ll look forward to hearing how it works for you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need any assistance.
June 18th, 2013 at 1:15 am
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