Breaking Down Team Silos

Abstract

Workplace silos may be commonplace in healthcare organizations, but the author of this article argues that they can and should be broken. This article defines workplace silo and explains how the highly departmentalized nature of healthcare delivery creates a silo breeding ground. It describes the problems workplace silos create: among these are stifled innovation, redundant or duplicative work, missed opportunities, conflicts, and wasted resources. It describes how silos form in healthcare organizations because of problems of social identity, structural design, and communication. This article then offers readers more than 15 practical strategies for breaking down siloed teams and provides additional strategies for anticipating and overcoming their teams’ inevitable resistance to change. Finally, this article suggests that creating cross-functional teams can break down silos and provides readers with 10 strategies for creating and leading the most effective cross-functional teams.