SILO_BREAKTHROUGHS

SILO BREAKTHROUGHS: CREATING A POWERFUL MIDDLE TEAM
By Marcia Hyatt, Ginny Belden-Charles, Waterline Consulting
The executive was frustrated. He frequently was mediating conflicts between his direct
reports. How was it that people responsible for large business units were unable to get
along? He did not have time to deal with their issues. Why wasn’t there more
cooperation and coordination among his direct reports? Maybe he needed to talk to
Human Resources about bringing in some “real” team players for his unit.
Working with managers, from front line supervisors to heads of business units, one will
find there are predictable patterns of disconnection between functional managers
across the organization. These patterns, identified by Barry Oshry (1994, 1995),
include: poor communications, duplication of work, internal competition, lack of
synergy, and shortsighted solutions. When there is a silo mentality it is thought to be a
function of a person or of the organizational structure. The real cause of this
dysfunction is systemic, predictable and fixable.
In this article, we examine the “middle space” in organizations. “Middles” in a system

are those who are in the middle of the hierarchy or those caught between conflicting
demands. The ones in an organization who experience this the most are the
management layers between top executives and front line workers. In some systems
this could mean 4-8 layers of management. We will look at the conditions that exist in
the middle and the common systemic patterns that these conditions create. We will
share success stories of middles who have effectively integrated, what they have been
able to accomplish, and the organization mechanisms that have helped them bridge
the business to create a powerful middle team.
Middle Space
“I don’t see that it’s worth a lot of my energy to meet separately with my peers. They’re
not the ones that make things happen around here. I don’t trust some of them, with
others I have conflicts over goals, others are trying to look good, and the rest have
nothing to do with me getting my job done. I have so much on my plate, the last thing I
need is another meeting.”
The middle of an organization is often a painful place to live. By virtue of their position,
middles are pulled in many directions. It is difficult to please anyone. Their bosses
expect them to get certain results from their staffs. Their staff expects them to get
resources from the bosses. Customers, other departments, and productivity goals all
pull at them. Because middles are pulled apart from each other and dealing with their
own agendas, they do not see the value in getting together with other middles. Many
middles feel isolated. Without understanding or an intervention, alienation from one
another results. Alienation leads to competition, to judging one another or not trusting
one another.
We structure organizations to break down complex tasks and resources into

manageable components. No matter how the pie is sliced up, we create separate units
and those units have the potential to become organizational silos. Silo mentality occurs
when managers respond to the demands of the job, become focused on their own
functional area and do not have mechanisms to integrate with other middles in the
system.
The middle dis-integration is not because middles are inherently poor team players; it
is because middles don’t understand why they are alienated. And more importantly
they don’t see the value of integration. Even if they come to see the potential benefits of
integration, most find it difficult to start because of poor peer relationships or because
of their over-loaded calendars.
Middles and their failure to integrate is one of the great organization tragedies. They
have such potential power to positively impact a system. The system needs those in
the middle of an organization to share information, work information, solve common
problems, and support one another. Middles are uniquely positioned to deal with
common organization maladies - poor communication, poor coordination across silos
and frustrated change efforts. Yet it rarely happens.
Creating a Powerful Middle Team

The company had to change to be successful in the changing marketplace. The new
structure had middle management (VP level) owning their regions like a small
business. They were accountable for profit and loss. This was a new way of operating.
The design committee knew these middles needed to learn from each other (fast) to
survive and thrive in this new way of operating. Silo breakthrough teams were
structured across the company. Their assignment was to learn from each other. Most
VP’s entered this forum reluctantly. Some barely knew each other, others lacked
respect for their team members, and some were in conflict. Through required regular
meeting, and a facilitated process they achieved results. A three year evaluation
showed the teams had positively impacted business results and strengthened peer
relationships.
Breaking through the silo boundaries is critical for organizational success. Ongoing
Silo Breakthrough Teams™ provide a powerful mechanism to bridge the white space in
organizations. These can be initiated by upper management, Human Resources or the
middles themselves.
Effective Silo Breakthrough Teams™:

Meet as a peer group. They can be groups of peers within the same business unit,
parts of a customer supply chain, intact teams, or leaders from different parts of the
organization. The key here is “peers only”. When bosses are in the room, the
consequence is reduced safety, more vulnerability and more motivation to look good
rather than learn.
Focus on compelling work challenges. Silo Breakthrough Teams™ work on individual

or shared work issues. Members of the group must have direct capacity to act on
issues they bring into the group. When the issues are compelling and the work results
in tangible benefits on the job, middles discover the benefits of meeting and make the
time to come together.
Commit to meet over time. Organizations need ongoing middle integration. Meeting
periodically ensures learning translates into action. Also, it takes time to overcome the
effects of alienation. After several meetings, relationship and trust are strengthened;
then learning can occur.
Engage in a structured reflection that results in strategic action. Silo Breakthrough

Teams™ that sustain over time need to move beyond the surface level of information
exchange or office gossip. Teams that self-sustain learn how to address the deeper
challenges they and their organizations face.
Case Example: Strategic Silo Breakthrough Teams™ An executive contracted with
Waterline Consulting to facilitate monthly meetings of the 6 business unit heads in his
division. The group was to meet one day a month for 1 year. The sponsor and
participants were briefed individually and collectively on the process and the
expectations. Then the participants were taught key skills for participating in a Silo
Breakthrough Team™ such as questioning and reflective thinking. When the group
began their monthly meetings each presented real work challenges. One worked on a
department turn around, another member worked on the implementation strategy for a
change effort. Each was coached by their peers who used a structured inquiry-based
method. After working their challenge, the participants commit to action items. They
are accountable to report back to the team on their progress when they meet again.
During the year, the facilitator also taught the participants innovative thinking
techniques to increase the creativity of their solutions. After 8 months, the team and
sponsor reported these meetings were increasing strategic behavior between
meetings; relationships and coordination had improved as well.
Getting Results through Silo Breakthrough Teams™ Here are some examples of results
achieved by middles breaking through silos:
Thinking and acting systemically. The team of cross-functional middle managers had
spent the meeting addressing individual work challenges when they discovered a
common denominator in each of these challenges. The way they managed and
tracked customer files was broken. Up until this meeting, they were each trying to fix
aspects of this individually. But now they could see how the problem was systemic.
Instead of working the issue separately, they worked together to fix the process,
identified someone at a higher level who could sponsor their efforts and solved the
issue within 3 months. - - Insurance Team
Coordinating efforts. After 3 months in our new job, most of us wanted to quit. We each
had a different client base to serve. We were going crazy trying to address the
expectations of the clients and the expectations of the corporate office. Once we
began to meet and reflect regularly, we saw opportunities to divide and conquer. We
also used the time to coach each other about how to manage this difficult job. The
coaching and finding ways to avoid duplication freed us up to be more strategic. It is
hard blocking a day every few months to meet, but I DON’T have time NOT to meet. --
Human Resource Team
Becoming a better leader and coach. “I am now learning to ask a lot of questions to
help people come up with their own solutions rather than me giving them all the
answers. Often it even happens in the hallway now. When my employee asked me
what to do about his project, I asked him what he would do if he had to make a
decision tomorrow, told him to think about it overnight and get back to me in our one-
on-one meeting the next day. In the past I would have likely given him my answer,
rather than helping him learn to make tough decisions and helping my team stand on
their own two feet.” -- IT Director
Middle managers have the potential to make a significant impact on organizational

results. Too often this impact is diminished through a failure to work together effectively
across the organization. Silo Breakthrough Teams are a proven way to help middles
bridge the white space and become a powerful leadership force in their organizations.
References
Ginny Belden-Charles and Marcia Hyatt. Waterline Action Learning Handbook (St.
Paul, MN, Waterline Consulting, 2004).
Oshry, Barry. IN THE MIDDLE, (Power + Systems, ISBN 0-910411-15-8, 1-800-241-

0598, 1994).
Oshry, Barry. SEEING SYSTEMS (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1995).
Marcia Hyatt can be reached at [email protected] and Ginny Belden-

Charles can be reached at [email protected].

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SILO BREAKTHROUGHS: CREATING A POWERFUL MIDDLE TEAM

By Marcia Hyatt, Ginny Belden-Charles, Waterline Consulting

In this article, we examine the “middle space” in organizations. “Middles” in a system

We structure organizations to break down complex tasks and resources into

Creating a Powerful Middle Team

Effective Silo Breakthrough Teams™:

Focus on compelling work challenges. Silo Breakthrough Teams™ work on individual

Engage in a structured reflection that results in strategic action. Silo Breakthrough

Middle managers have the potential to make a significant impact on organizational

Oshry, Barry. IN THE MIDDLE, (Power + Systems, ISBN 0-910411-15-8, 1-800-241-

Oshry, Barry. SEEING SYSTEMS (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1995).

Marcia Hyatt can be reached at [email protected] and Ginny Belden-

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