This week I spent the morning with some great professionals committed to closing the manufacturing skills gap in Minnesota. This Industry Skills Panel is one of 3 industry segments (healthcare and technology are the other two) targeted as part of a joint effort between the Governor’s Workforce Development Council and the Greater Twin Cities United Way. Wise people from business, government and education were in attendance. There was much talk about DEED, TIMS, TAA and many more acronyms representing different divisions of government and education that I (and presumably others) wasn’t familiar with. The challenge was, we didn’t speak the same organizational language and we didn’t know who to talk to in which divisions to get buy in and support. While experts in our individual functions, no one could really speak to the entire system. We only saw and understood a fraction of what the other organizations do. This reminded me of a great conversation I had last week about organizational silos.
The discussion concerned developing the HR and OD systems to drive organizational alignment and develop future leaders. As we discussed project objectives and organizational goals I was pleased to learn everyone at the company had a goal aligned with the business plan. Each department also had scoreboards of key metrics, which were reviewed on a monthly basis, and course corrections are made as needed. This company is obviously doing a great job with vertical alignment!
Scoreboards make a lot of sense when you examine them from a top-down perspective. The challenge is alignment across the organization. R&D is driven to design innovative products. Manufacturing is driven to produce efficiently and effectively. Sales is tasked to sell, sell, sell (who cares if the product exists or if operations can produce it!). How do you get all the functions pulling in the same direction, when often they are evaluated and rewarded based on conflicting goals? They key to horizontal alignment is tearing down the silos and building systems of interdependence. Whether through turf building, sheer size or lack of awareness, silos permeate organizations.
When I asked the CEO about horizontal alignment in his organization, he described it as “silos with windows.” What a fabulous descriptor of the incremental progress they are making toward breaking down the functional barriers! Like any organization on a lean journey, they focus on continual improvement. For this CEO, a portion of the progress will be measured in windows.
Silos with windows…..
Open the windows…….
Create a door…..
Build a skyway…..
Tear down the silos
Hats off to the leadership team at Shippers Supply for this great description and many thanks for their willingness to let me promote their concept.
Where are the windows, doors and skyways in your organization? You may even come across a sealed silo or two. Wishing you much success in building your skyways and tearing down silos.
Scoreboards make a lot of sense when you examine them from a top-down perspective. The challenge is alignment across the organization. R&D is driven to design innovative products. Manufacturing is driven to produce efficiently and effectively. Sales is tasked to sell, sell, sell (who cares if the product exists or if operations can produce it!). How do you get all the functions pulling in the same direction, when often they are evaluated and rewarded based on conflicting goals? They key to horizontal alignment is tearing down the silos and building systems of interdependence. Whether through turf building, sheer size or lack of awareness, silos permeate organizations.
When I asked the CEO about horizontal alignment in his organization, he described it as “silos with windows.” What a fabulous descriptor of the incremental progress they are making toward breaking down the functional barriers! Like any organization on a lean journey, they focus on continual improvement. For this CEO, a portion of the progress will be measured in windows.
Silos with windows…..
Open the windows…….
Create a door…..
Build a skyway…..
Tear down the silos
Hats off to the leadership team at Shippers Supply for this great description and many thanks for their willingness to let me promote their concept.
Where are the windows, doors and skyways in your organization? You may even come across a sealed silo or two. Wishing you much success in building your skyways and tearing down silos.