Cross- Silo teams

[Nancy McCabe]

Harvard Business Review must have been listening to our calls. The May-June issue includes a terrific article on cross-silo leadership which addresses the issues of senior leadership teams holding disparate roles in far-flung locations. The central message of the article is the need for collaboration grounded on understanding different perspectives and the benefit of bridging backgrounds and enhancing the flow of pertinent information and expertise. The article clearly relates to positivity and productivity factors.

As teams try to manage different agendas and develop cohesive or collaborative action plans, the article offers a number of structures for teams to consider. Among the key solutions:
1. Cultural Brokers – Identify “go-betweens” or “bridges” between people with different functions. Select people on teams who have cross-functional knowledge to bring people together to share relevant or helpful information. Respect and communication is naturally built in this manner.
2. A variation on the “bridge” person is the “Adhesive” or connector, who helps teams/colleagues understand and hear what they need to know by connecting them with particular people in other areas. Using the intellectual resources of a company to insure that decisions are made with all the available information and contribution of key stakeholders.

The article inspired me to suggest the following exercises as a way to introduce the general benefit of curiosity and dialogue among diverse teams.

Exercise 1
“ What would you like me to know…?”

A simple though potentially powerful 30 minute exercise.

1. Pair up the teams in duos. Put people together who don’t interact generally.
2. 5 minutes each. Each person shares some information, either personal or professional that can build understanding between them.
3. 5 minutes each. Debrief with each other the impact of hearing that information. While in the duos, ask if it’s OK to share information with the group.
4. Debrief with the team.. Ask for volunteers to share.
a. What did you discover?
b. What was the impact?
c. Did you come away from that exercise with any new insight about how you can work together?

Exercise 2
30 minutes What do I do…? A Day in the life…
1. Split up into duos.
2. Ask each person to describe a day in the life of his/her partner’s job. 5 minutes each
3. Did they get it right? – De-brief with each other on how well they understand your role. 5 minutes each
4. What do you think they missed? Is there something else you’d like him/her to know? 5 minutes each
5. De-brief with the whole team any key information. 10-20 minutes

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