The real cost of silos: fixing broken teamwork

Is your company wasting money because teams don't work well together? Nearly every business does, but often leaders don't spot the problem until it becomes serious.

Let's look at how to find this waste in your company and fix it, using lessons from businesses that have solved this problem. You'll learn how to get better results without disrupting your current operations.

Money lost through poor teamwork

Poor teamwork costs more than you might think. Companies can waste as much as 20% of their operating budgets when departments don't work together well.

A major car maker found this out. Their design team created products without talking to the engineering or assembly teams. This led to designs that were hard to build. When they changed tack and got these teams working together from day one, they cut their development time by 25% and had fewer mistakes in production.¹

Finding problems in your company

Look for these common warning signs of poor teamwork:

• Teams blaming each other when things go wrong
• Different departments working toward different goals
• The same work being done twice
• Frequent surprises in projects
• Long delays waiting for other teams.

Successful manufacturers have tracked these issues using shared information systems. These tools help them spot problems early and fix them fast.²

Why cross-functional teams?

The best companies bring different teams together at the start of each project. They found this simple change leads to:

• Fewer mistakes
• Faster work
• Better products
• Lower costs

For example, when manufacturing companies brought together design, engineering, and assembly teams from the start of a new project, they started catching problems early while they were cheap to fix.¹

How?

That's all well and good, but how do you get different teams collaborating when they haven't before?

1. Define your objectives. What is the goal that all your teams can align themselves with?
2. Establish clear channels. Get your teams on the same platform to track the project and communicate with each other.
3. Assign roles. Everyone taking part in a cross-functional team must understand who is responsible, who is accountable, and who should be consulted or informed about what.
4. Hold regular check-ins. Schedule consistent meetings for collaboration to discuss progress, roadblocks, and next steps.
5. Foster a team culture. Encourage your people to share their knowledge regularly through brainstorming sessions, expertise-sharing workshops, and cross-functional discussions.

Many successful companies have successfully used these techniques to improve their cross-functional collaboration.³

Making safe changes

Of course, changes can bring risk. But you can improve teamwork without risking your business. Here's a proven plan:

1. Pick one small project to start.
2. Get leaders from different teams together early.
3. Track the metrics you hope to improve.
4. Share the good results.
5. Slowly do more projects this way.

Successful companies train their teams on new ways of working before making changes. This keeps things running smoothly while getting better results.

Your next steps

This week, watch how your teams work together on one project. Count how many times work gets delayed or redone because teams didn't talk to each other. These delays and do-overs are costing your business money.

Then try this: get all teams together before your next project starts. You'll be surprised how many problems they catch early, saving time and money down the road.

I send out short articles like this every week on Tuesday. I write about how businesses can effectively innovate through software.

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