Skip to content
CROSS-SILO_Logo_Copyright_Protected_2023
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • GM Playbook
    • Our Services
    • Principles
    • Vision and Mission
    • Corporate Identity
    • Executive Team & Board
  • News
  • Contact
Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • GM Playbook
    • Our Services
    • Principles
    • Vision and Mission
    • Corporate Identity
    • Executive Team & Board
  • News
  • Contact
Search
Close

Innovation Calls for Horizontal Collaboration

  • July 13, 2021
  • No Comments
  • News Archive

CROSS~SILO has identified that barriers between functional silos are one of the root causes of low productivity, erratic customer experiences, and decelerated growth. Strict functional boundaries that shape these barriers can be especially harmful during transformative change (disruptive innovation). 

As described by Max Weber, bureaucracy can be very effective during times of modest technological progress, generally leading to more sustaining innovation. The popular management theory demands formal job descriptions to keep employees highly focused on their part. As a result, the output is more consistent, and workers are more productive, leading to more profit and more shareholder value.

However, especially during times of transformative change, strict functions and mental silos hamper creativity and innovation, while it makes no sense to work consistently toward a discontinuous future. 

Instead, we need to allow our people to cross the functional lines, i.e., the functional silos, as ‘innovation hinges more and more on interdisciplinary cooperation’ (Harvard’s Heidi Gardner).

Besides, the notion that innovation comes from people acting purely from self-interest, as often proclaimed by capitalists, could not be further from the truth. Instead, innovation comes from a group of people with a diversity of thought, working together to come up with a better solution to a known problem, in a way none of the individuals by themselves would have been able to device.

Cubicles versus Open Spaces

How do you envision corporate hell? It probably involves fluorescent light, a micromanaging boss and a tiny, impersonal cubicle. But the office layout that’s come to represent the worst in work was actually designed to bring out the best in workers. When they debuted in the 1960s, cubicles were supposed to make offices breezier, less confined and more efficient.

Meanwhile, Robert Propst (the inventor of what became known as the cubicle but he himself called the Action Office), watched in horror as an invention intended to liberate American office workers was used to fence them in. “Not all organizations are intelligent and progressive,” he lamented. “Lots are run by crass people. They make little, bitty cubicles and stuff people in them. Barren, rathole places.”

Even though the cubicles have been abandoned by some companies in favor of open floorplans, coworking and communal offices, Propst’s invention still boxes in about 30 percent of workers. And by the time he died in 2000, Propst had spent years apologizing for creating a corporate monster.

Office Desk - Male
Office Desk - Female
Action Office
Cubicle

More to explorer

cross-silo-shutterstock_243638314_2500

Whole System Positive Change

July 19, 2022 No Comments

We’ve spent almost seven years designing the ROUNDMAP™ Whole System Model of Business in an attempt to overcome widespread employee disengagement and

The Course of Action: Know When to Turn

July 13, 2022 No Comments

While briefly considering taking an online short course at MIT Sloan, Leadership in an Exponentially Changing World, I realized that any course

CROSS-SILO_Lifecycle_of_Positive_Change_Copyright_Protected

Lifecycle of Positive Change™

June 25, 2022 No Comments

We’re a strong advocate of Positive Change. However, we noticed that the 4-D cycle (right), used in Appreciative Inquiry (A) interventions, may

cross-silo-shutterstock_243638314_2500

Whole System Positive Change

July 19, 2022

The Course of Action: Know When to Turn

July 13, 2022
CROSS-SILO_Lifecycle_of_Positive_Change_Copyright_Protected

Lifecycle of Positive Change™

June 25, 2022

Introducing Change Onward!

June 22, 2022
cross_silo_wave

Beware The Great Deluge

May 24, 2022
Grandmaster-of-Business-Award-Chiron

Grandmaster of Business Award™ 2021

February 9, 2022

The Formula for Change (Gleicher)

August 19, 2021
Boundaries

Crossing Boundaries during Times of Transformative Change

July 23, 2021

Innovation Calls for Horizontal Collaboration

July 13, 2021
stopwatch-3699314_1920

Elon Musk: MBAs stifle innovation

December 19, 2020
ROUNDMAP_Symbol_PI_Copyright_Protected_2023
positive-inquiry-tm

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RISE ABOVE THE HERD

Want to learn more about the ROUNDMAP™ Professional Certification Program or on how to become a Grandmaster of Business?

Visit the ROUNDMAP™ Academy
CONNECTING HUMAN SYSTEMS™
CROSS_SILO_Logo_O_Plus_Copyright_Protected_2022_rev
  • Mandela Square 1
    Regus Martinez Tower, 18th floor
    1314 CG ALMERE
    THE NETHERLANDS
  • Europe, HQ: +31 (0)88 123 11 11
  • USA, Los Angeles: (213) 900-2134
  • USA, New York: (332) 900-4312
  • [email protected]
  • Chamber of Commerce 66749115
  • VAT NL 856683097B01
roundmap_martinez_toren

Newsletter

View CROSS-SILO BV profile on Ariba Discovery
© Copyright 2014-2023 CROSS SILO BV, The Netherlands - All Rights Reserved
Call: The Netherlands (088) 234 11 11 - United States (213) 900-2134 or (332) 900-4312