A Silo is one of those business buzzwords that we regularly hear from our clients. Despite how it sounds, breaking down silos doesn’t have anything to do with destroying a farm’s grain-storing structure. According to the Business Dictionary the Silo Mentality is a mindset present when certain departments or sectors do not wish to share information with others in the same company. This type of mentality will reduce efficiency in the overall operation, reduce morale, and may contribute to the demise of a productive company culture.
Silo is a term that has been around for many years and continues to be a prominent issue for organisations today. It is no secret that if you want your team to be more effective, productive, happier and successful, all departments of an organisation have to work well together. So how does one go about breaking down silos in the workplace? See below for our top breaking down silos team building activities:
FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
This session has a strong focus on both the individual and the team. Our Team Development facilitator, Lincoln, provides tools and insight on how to be a Functional Team and methods to identify and potentially shift behaviours. Getting the team culture to be functional is a challenge that will reap rewards for your business. Setting aside personal differences, setting agreements and expectations and having a common purpose are very powerful tools.
BRIDGE TO UNITY
An exciting collaborative construction project with teams working in unison to design and construct an impressive bridge. Each team builds the bridge to their customer expectations while overcoming limited resources, communication barriers and strict timelines. The exciting final sees each team’s individual bridge being installed to create the huge, extended Company Bridge. The final construction is tested with a remote controlled car. A fun, engaging, hands on event with very powerful metaphors – where all departments of an organisation strive towards their own goals, but also play a vital role in the bigger picture.
PROJECT PIPELINE
This is a challenging and entertaining activity that will bring out the best in your team. Each team will be assigned a country and the task of building a pipeline to deliver a precious resource from one side to the other. On top of managing time, resources and personnel to build their Country’s, pipeline teams will also need to negotiate and innovate to connect their pipeline to all the other Country’s creating one continuous pipeline. Teams will need to work against time and conflicting objectives to achieve the whole group goal.
Delegates will have great fun, planning, negotiating, inventing and competing against the other Country’s to create their Pipeline. By the completion of the project the whole group will have built a long and winding pipeline that is put to the test when the precious resources are sent down the line.