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What’s top of mind for both a 21-year-old intern and a seasoned C-suite executive? 

Information silos. 

While the intern may be focused on how to function with limited information and the executive may be determined to understand the business impact, get to the root cause, and incentivize knowledge sharing…their frustration is the same. And significant. 

When the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, there’s friction for everyone. At all levels.

In this post, we’ll explain:

• Information silos in the age of connectivity
• Why information silos form—between *and* within teams 
• The problem(s) with working in silos
• Why it pays to eliminate information silos
• 14 ways to break down silos in business

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Information silos in the age of connectivity

In one sense, it feels strange to talk about information silos. 

After all:

• The “age of connectivity” is here. A staggering 5.16 billion people (64% of our global population) use the internet. There are roughly 500,000 new internet users every single day. And by 2030, 7.5 billion of us will be online. 👀
• We have more data at our fingertips than ever before. Reporting capabilities are table stakes for software tools. Many of us are now more concerned about data privacy and security than data availability. 🔐
• Information overload feels like the hotter topic. In case you missed it: there’s an entire movement dedicated to personal knowledge management and how to build a second brain. 🤯

But the sheer volume of available information is half the battle. What adds another level of complexity? How fast knowledge can be created, captured, shared, consumed, and applied—and how tricky it is to consistently check all of those boxes.

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What causes information silos? 

The short answer is faulty knowledge sharing.

The long answer is a laundry list of compounding factors, including:

• No consensus on company goals. 📝 Without a clear understanding of company goals—and how department-level initiatives and individual projects ladder up to them—it’s hard to know what information should be shared, when. 
• Lack of communication. 🤷🏽 When teams and/or teammates don’t communicate, it’s easy to make decisions that don’t take what others are working on into account. What can also quickly go off the rails? Prioritization. 
• Too many tools. 🤔 We have tools for customer relationship management. Sales analytics and enablement. Demand generation and marketing automation. Content and project management. And so many more. If those tools don’t talk to one another, it’s hard to have a single source of truth for data.
• Not enough documentation. 👎🏾 Imagine how much institutional knowledge is trapped inside people’s heads, local file systems, and specialized applications. Then picture how much employee knowledge you’ve seen walk out the door as people have left the building for good. 
• Documentation that’s not easily discoverable, relevant, or formatted well. 🙅♀️ Even when the information *is* available, it’s often: hard to find, fragmented, outdated, imprecise, or wordy.
• Silo mentality. 🛑  If people consider managing their own work, inside their own function as Priority #1, they may prioritize their own projects and opportunities to make an impact over what’s best for the business. 
• Insufficient knowledge transfer incentives. 🔍 If department leaders, team managers, and individual contributors don’t see knowledge sharing as necessary to their efforts, it’s easy to let it slip by the wayside. 
• Privacy concerns. 🔒 Some departments (take Human Resources, for example) may want to keep their information close due to security reasons.
• Remote/hybrid work. 🏡 We love working from our pajamas as much as the next person—but there’s no denying that it takes some intentionality to keep people in different time zones on the same page. 

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Whether you’re an individual contributor with a pulse on the big picture or a manager charged with change management, here are six scenarios that can create information silos. 

Information Silos: 6 Common Catalysts 

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The problem(s) with working in silos

In an ideal world, information would flow freely between—and within—cross-functional teams. 

We’d default to working in public. We’d know about all major initiatives underway. And everyone would know exactly where to look to find the knowledge they need to do their best work.

When that doesn’t happen, a few other things do. 

Let’s consider each in turn. 👇

1. Wasted time and energy.

We spend an inordinate amount of time and mental energy looking for information. 1.8 hours every day, according to McKinsey research. What’s equally eye-opening, as a result of information silos? The amount of duplicative work going on. 

2. Misinformation.

Without a single source of truth, reconciling data from different software is frustrating at best. At worst? It increases the risk of inaccurate updates and forecasts—and pulls people away from doing valuable analysis to move the company forward.

3. More knowledge hoarding.

If information silos are the norm, knowledge hoarding may become more widespread. When a scarcity mindset prevails and people want to get credit for their ideas above all else, you end up with subject matter experts who want to be the only subject matter experts.

4. Suboptimal decision making.

The most successful teams make quick and informed decisions. What happens when people need to do extra legwork to find context they need—or skip digging deeper altogether? Your average decision making process gets extended, and data-driven decision making becomes a real challenge. 

5. Missed learning opportunities.

Microlearning is one of the best ways to build a culture of knowledge sharing, close skill gaps, and increase productivity. Where information silos thrive, learning does not. 

6. Stifled innovation.

By definition, information silos limit communication and collaboration between people, which can prevent the exchange of A+ ideas. When people work in silos, new market trends, technologies, customer insights, and more don’t see the light of day. 

7. Disjointed customer experiences.

Friction felt internally becomes friction felt externally very, very quickly. When customer data is restricted to certain team members or departments, you run the risk of asking a customer to provide the same information more than once and accidentally contradicting previous messaging.

8. Decreased morale.

Wasting time is frustrating. Trying to get stuff done with incomplete and/or incorrect information is stressful (if not downright impossible). Being surrounded by people who are in it for themselves is disheartening. On a scale of 1 to so thrilled you’d want to post a glowing Glassdoor review, where do you stand? 

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The benefits of eliminating information silos

Convinced it’s time to do away with your information silos?

You may want to act sooner rather than later. 👇

1. Greater efficiency.

What tends to surface first, when you get rid of information silos? Opportunities to do things better and faster. Minimizing redundant efforts. Streamlining workflows. Eliminating unnecessary steps. Automating repetitive tasks. The possibilities to improve overall productivity are endless.

2. Accurate information.

If misinformation flourished while you had information silos, information accuracy will improve as more information becomes available. What else will become clear? Where you and your team may have blind spots, and what you can do proactively to make the most of everyone’s time and talents.

3. More knowledge sharing.

Idle knowledge is useless knowledge. Without silos to inhibit the flow of information between teammates, teams, and departments, more knowledge sharing can take place. Beyond the obvious benefits, individuals and teams will be able to spend less time searching for help and answering the same questions—and more time making an impact and improving their craft.

4. Better decision making. 

#4 goes hand-in-hand with #3. When more knowledge transfer takes place consistently over time and there’s a wider range of readily accessible insights, expertise, and perspectives, everyone can make more informed decisions and projections. 

5. Continuous learning—in the flow of work.

“If you aren’t learning, you’re languishing” may sound harsh, but it’s true. Organizations that enable continuous learning—where and when work is happening—have a competitive advantage. You don’t need to have a big budget or formal programs in place, either. Learning on the job is cost effective *and* accelerates business growth. 

6. Increased creativity and collaboration.

It doesn’t matter if your information silo existed within a team or across teams. By knocking it down, new partnerships, natural synergies, and innovative ideas can quickly take its place. 

7. Connected customer experiences.

By removing data silos, you can quickly deliver a more remarkable customer experience. When your sales team can see what your marketing team sent and your support team can see the customer’s last touchpoint with your brand, it’s infinitely easier to provide a seamless end-to-end experience. 

8. Improved employee engagement. 

Another win-win. Without information silos standing in the way, people can waste less energy finding/sharing the knowledge they need, and spend more time getting better at the most interesting parts of their jobs. What’s the result? Employees who are more engaged, motivated, and likely to support each other—which ultimately helps company growth.

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14 steps to break down silos

At this point, we’re well beyond “what is a silo.” We’ve rounded up the issues with letting information silos live, and layered the advantages to breaking them down on top. Now we’ll give you some practical ways to put a plan into action to reunite your people—and their unique knowledge.

Information Silos: 14 Ways To Stop Working in Silos

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