By Hank Marquis

Understanding IT Silos

Too many call for "breaking down silos" to improve cross-team collaboration. Silos, for lack of a better word, are good. And I, for one, am tired of hearing "experts" rail against them.

Contrary to popular wisdom, silos are fantastic things—don't waste time trying to tear silos down; instead, invest in making your silos even stronger!

Silos represent an effective way of managing and developing increasingly specific skills required in any field. Silos are not bad per-se, are often required, and can, in fact, be very practical and valuable. The "silo problem" lies not with the silo concept but rather with the lack of communication between silos and management with and over silos.

We developed silos to store one type of food grain apart from another. "Silo" initially meant "corn pit," and silos have been with us since the beginning of humanity.

Today, in IT, silos represent specialization.

Or at least it should. I hear so many well-meaning people decry silos, especially silos in IT. In my opinion, this is really an indirect attack designed to misdirect, to take our minds off the real issue.

Silos are the only way to manage increasingly complex concepts. Medicine, education, government, and business all rely upon silos.

It makes sense to develop staff, management, and other systems based on the unique requirements of each. Consider a sales organization. Sales is different from, say, Transportation. Sales and Transportation both have different needs.

Silos also exist within silos. You often find inbound and direct field sales within a typical sales organization (er, silo). They usually have different systems, staff, and needs. They are silos too.

Yes, silos are everywhere, but experts seldom complain about "evil" Sales silos or "intransigent" Transportation silos. Why the attack on IT?

Yes, an IT organization is a silo of silos, which is very good. Silos are needed and serve an essential purpose: specialization, process, and governance to deliver competence. Who does not want that? We want our healthcare providers to be specialists that follow a process. We want our airline pilots to be competent too.

No, the issue isn't the presence or absence of silos. The problem is the lack of communication and coordination between them.

Wikipedia states: "The silo effect is a phrase currently popular in the business and organizational communities to describe a lack of communication and common goals between departments. It is the opposite of systems thinking in an organization."

The real issue is the lack of management. Could the solution be as simple as business customers and employees assuming responsibility for their consumption of IT services?

The real problem with most IT silos is that silos often have a self-contained or specialized language and self-contained processes and support systems to operate. Without higher-level leadership that connects these silo systems into part of a larger whole, IT becomes a tower of Babel.

Poor management by business and IT managers is the problem, not silos. When business and IT managers decide to lead, they can leverage the power of silos in a matter of days. Until then, it remains a tower of Babel.

But know for sure silos are permanent, and silos are good. You need to learn how to resolve the "silo effect," — but "tearing down silos" is like "tossing the baby out with the bath water." Try leadership instead!

Please comment or reach out and let me know what you think, I'd love to talk with you!

Best,
Hank

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