One of the more common issues raised by our clients at the start of their change journey is that a 'silo mentality' creates real barriers to getting things done as an organisation. So a key part of our role is to help clients build the ‘right’ culture that allows those silos to start dissolving, so the wealth of knowledge, ideas, experience and insight held in the organisation can be released for everyone's benefit.

Anyone that's ever worked in a large organisation (or even medium sized for that matter) knows what the impact of internal silos can be. Silos are those seemingly impenetrable but invisible barriers between functional areas and teams that prevent people working together to get the best result for the organisation and the customer.

I think the ex CEO of HP, Lewis Platt, summed the cost of silos up really well when he said

    “If HP knew what HP knows, it would be three times more profitable"

Clearly he could see immense value in breaking them down and actively encouraging people to share what they know with others.

Silos really only exist because the culture of an organisation allows them to exist. These tend to be cultures where:

•  people aren't tasked with collaboration and are allowed to protect their own patch
•  people don't have good line of sight to the customer and don’t have a shared view as to what is best for their real stakeholders
•  people aren't empowered to get on and generate ideas, then action the changes that need to be made to product, service and process - to do what is right!
•  short term KPI's encourage people to put self before the customer or organisation.

If silos are an issue in your organisation, here are a few articles I’ve found useful reading.

Have a read of Why Cross-Pollinating Your Work, Works and think about how you, or your team members, might benefit from spending time in other areas of the business. Would it give them a better line of sight to the customer?

This article talks about the value of letting people move around and work in other areas of a business, to see what they do, build relationships and share their ideas for improvement. This approach helps people start to connect the dots and understand how what they do impacts on others, and to look for better ways of doing things. As the article says…

“Many companies, whether by design or by accident, tend to be very compartmentalized. In essence, you are given a tiny box within which to work on your project but you often won’t have a good idea of what’s going on in other areas of the company; the opportunities for cross pollination are limited unless you commit to moving positions/projects.”

This short article in Forbes magazine titled 'Breaking down silos' from the insightful John Kotter, looks at the consequences of silos and three of the things you can do to break them down. My favourite is ‘Focus on opportunity, not crisis’!

Lastly this article from Businessweek about Smashing Silos has five great tips on how to get collaboration going. My favourite is the one about Establishing Cross-Functional Mentoring - a great way for people to get a perspective on other parts of the business and what is and isn't working.

I hope these articles are useful in getting some dialogue underway in your organisation around silo-busting. Considering silos destroy trust, break down communication and foster complacency they really need to be gotten rid of.

To get a feel for the real sense of excitement and opportunity that emerges when silos are being smashed, consider these comments from our clients.

    “The entire floor of IT Ops told me today that they see a huge change in how we all talk to each other and collaborate”.

    “It's an attitude change, we are working together. What's really amazing is how quickly it happened. it has only been 5 months!”

    “Silos are breaking down. Better working relationships are being built across areas. Enthusiasm to make changes has increased. Peoples ideas and opinions are being encouraged and heard. People feel more valued by the company.”


If you need help to start smashing down those silos then the team at ON-Brand Partners is here to help.

Grant Costello
[email protected]

While our friends at ACC didn't win the HRINZ Award for Workforce Engagement Programme last night (congratulations Mercury), we know they are absolute winners in terms of how far they have come in building a customer-centric culture. And the engagement, NPS and customer satisfaction numbers prove it. So proud you were a Finalist and that we have been able to partner with you to build a customer experience worthy of an organisation that is so important to creating a healthy and productive New Zealand.

Congratulations also to GHD NZ - the winners of the 2018 Christian Dahmen award for Innovation in HR in association with ON-Brand Partners. Innovation in HR is what will allow you to attract the best people to tackle the challenges of this ever changing world. The team at ON-Brand Partners think you're pretty clever.

Lets talk elephants and monkeys and how alike they are to us humans.

The story in the graphic below resonated with me as soon as I saw it, as I think it illustrates really well that animals and humans alike behave based on the mindsets they have developed over time. These mindsets stop us from questioning how or why something is done the way it is and therefore nothing changes - even though change is inevitable and would benefit everyone

The famous story about the Monkeys the Ladder and the water is also a great illustration of the power of mindsets. I found this graphic about it online.

(Apologies to the copyright owner of this image, I couldn’t find who to attribute it to)

Like the elephants and monkeys it is common for humans to go through jobs/careers/life holding on to beliefs that either they cannot do something, or that there is really only one way to do something.

These mindsets are what limit our ability to look for new and better ways of doing things, to change to tackle the challenges of a dynamic new digital age. They are why we do the things the way they’ve always been done. And ultimately all those different mindsets add up to create the culture of an organisation, which then determines its’ success or otherwise.

Breaking down entrenched mindsets is all about challenging "the way we do things round here" - something that requires a structured conversation process that allows people to openly question things and feel encouraged and empowered to start asking “why?” more often. Quite often you'll find out that no-one knows why something is done the way it is in their organisation - it’s just the way it's always been done! The starting point for developing the ‘right’ culture for the task ahead is to create the right forums and conversations where people can ask "Why?" more often.

And if you're wondering why mindsets are so important, well they are what actually drive our behaviour, allowing the important stuff (strategic agendas) to get done. And if you want to align behaviours (e.g. being agile, embrace innovation, work better across teams etc) then you need to work to align an organisations mindsets as well.

Human, Monkey or Elephant we all need to question our mindsets if we want to escape the behaviours that bind us to the past and stop us dealing with the future. And to do that we need to have better conversations. (well the humans anyway)

Take a look at Changing the way we do things around here for some inspiration on changing mindsets or get in touch.

Grant Costello
[email protected]

NB: Yes I do realise the illustration in the graphic shows a chain not a rope around the elephants leg. Thankfully it’s hard to find images of elephants tied up!

If you want a fascinating insight into how the 'Digital revolution' is showing itself to be the sixth great change in civilisation as we know it, then take a look at this article from Strategy+Business titled A Long-Wave Theory on Today’s Digital Revolution.

According to Historian Elin Whitney-Smith "there have been six information revolutions in human history. Each represents a major change in the organizational paradigm — a change in how people form themselves into groups. The first was among hunter–gatherers just before the invention of agriculture; second, the rise of counting and written language; third, the fall of Rome; fourth, the invention of the printing press; fifth, the electric information revolution that accompanied trains, telegraph, and telephone; and sixth, the digital information revolution that we are now living through".

Says Whitney-Smith, the lesson for leaders in all types of organisations appears profound - "they either ignore the new information technology and miss out on opportunities, or they fear the world it creates and try to co-opt it, shut it down, or control it. This generally fails, their fortunes decline, and a new group of dominant competitors emerges". So rather than resist change we should look to embrace it, because let's face it, none of the revolutions outlined above ever went away just because people didn't want them to happen.

Can't help but think of the world of retail, TV, newspapers, books, music and postal services, to see examples of how some industries have changed profoundly in the last decade and that's just the start. Any industry that thinks they are immune to the changes that the digital revolution brings is likely to find themselves looking a bit like the Roman Empire. Constant reinvention is therefore likely to be critical. Why? Because history tells us it always has been.

This quote by J.Paul Getty also provides good insight into what organisations need to be doing to be fit for the future. And its not about relying on what they know or are good at today - probably because that will be redundant tomorrow.

    "In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy"

I reflected on this recently when a friend didn't get a job at a large telco because they didn't have industry experience! What I do know is they did have the rights skills and mindsets to have driven the necessary change that telco was looking for but without the constraints of what has gone before. Boom... is that a hole in their foot I see?

The Long-Wave theory article suggests that history is clearly telling us that leaders/organisations who move beyond what they know and embrace the latest digital revolution are the ones who will prosper (I loved the fascinating insight into why the USSR really failed - a reason in itself to read the article). Elin also highlights that the companies that will thrive are the ones with "massive line worker input" - those with the type of “open management” seen in the new business model of collaboration many of today's successful organisations are adopting (vs the old one of command and control).

Elin sums it all up by saying "In today’s world, the new wave of surviving organizations will also have a different structure. It’s not entirely clear yet what they’ll look like, but we know they’ll involve many more people at lower levels in decision making. In fact, in each new information revolution, decision rights have been pushed lower in the organization".

Companies that will survive the massive change underway will therefore be those that reorganise themselves and leverage the knowledge and talent held at all levels of an organisation, rather than rely on the flawed thinking that says senior managers should know all the answers. Sometimes senior managers are so far removed from their customers and the day to day workings of the business, that in fact they actually know less about 'what is really going on'. And frequently they are sheltered from reality by staff who'd rather keep them in the dark because they are afraid of the consequences of sharing the truth. Creating a culture that is inclusive and leverages the best of everything, is indeed the future of work.

Reorganising around the knowledge held at all levels of an organisation may sound exhausting but the alternatives don't look that flash - just ask Theodosius the Great, the last Emperor of the Roman Empire.

So I recommend you have a read of A Long-Wave Theory on Today’s Digital Revolution - it's a great slice of history and management insight all rolled into one.

Grant Costello
[email protected]


Create the right culture to take on a world of change!

If culture change is a priority for you, ON-Brand Partners has the experience and know-how to help you create a change-ready, agile, culture. One that gives your people the courage, flexibility and adaptability to successfully lead, navigate and prosper, in a sea of change.

Oh how that statement rings true in many corporates! I've seen it so often myself and I know people who work in innovation who feel exactly like they are mandated to improve innovation in their organisation, but as soon as they come up with ideas, leaders do everything they can to delay, roadblock or even sabotage them. Maybe it's a fear of failure that drives this or just a love of the comfortable status quo? If so, note to leaders, both of these are rapidly killing organisations.

I've always been a fan of the writing of Rosabeth Moss Kanter and this article for HBR on innovation had me and and others going "How true!". The article is titled Nine Rules for Stifling Innovation and the two opening paragraphs say it all...

"Innovation has become the holy grail. Finding innovation is almost a sacred quest for the solution that will create growth, and open new eras of prosperity and well-being. Unfortunately, like many things called holy, the concept of innovation is invoked ritually and ceremonially more than it is embraced in practice.

For all the talk about innovation, I see many leaders in numerous organizations in every sector who actively stifle it. They say they want more innovation. But at the same time, they seem to operate by a set of hidden principles designed to prevent innovations from surfacing or succeeding."

Rosabeths' Nine Rules for Stifling Innovation are a great read and will have many nodding in agreement. I personally reckon there is a tenth rule whereby too many leaders are viewing innovation as a person, department or process rather than a pervasive attitude owned by all. Great thing is Rosabeth turns insight into action and also provides nine 'antidote' actions to these rules as well! All of which relate to what sort of culture is being shaped in an organisation.

If culture change is a priority for you, ON-Brand Partners has the experience and know-how to help you create a change-ready, agile, culture. One that gives your people the courage, flexibility and adaptability to successfully lead, navigate and prosper, in a sea of change.

Have a read of Nine Rules for Stifling Innovation and think about how many you recognise from your career.

Grant Costello
[email protected]