Internal Communication Findings

“Organizational Silos” – (sometimes called “departments,” “sections,” or “divisions,” depending upon the organization) – are supposed to coordinate efforts and increase efficiency, but an international survey of knowledge workers in 8 nations found that the opposite is often the case. Silos contribute to the slowing of team innovation and an increase in stress and confusion.

Three primary reasons surfaced from employee surveys:

“79% of respondents blamed constant emails and messages, 57% said they have to redo work in different tools or apps, and 55% pointed to endless reporting and updates.” Another data point is that two-thirds of respondents said “silos cause information and data to be spread across too many tools, bogging down a team’s momentum,” and they impede communication between teams because of different operating parameters. Outdated/legacy tools were blamed for contributing to communication problems by half of the respondents.

A final result was that employees have ideas as to how to resolve the problems they see but that management is not listening to them.