Jade Rubick - How to build silos and decrease collaboration (on purpose)

“We need to break down silos between departments and get people to collaborate better” — almost every leader everywhere.

Most leaders reflexively think of silos as BAD and collaboration as GOOD. This manifesto defends silos and challenges the value of collaboration.

A collaborative team works together on one or two goals. This maximizes shared state — everyone has a common understanding of goals, progress, and who is doing what. This gives team members a better ability to focus and coordinate their work with each other. Team members have overlapping areas of knowledge, so they can critique each other’s work and help each other grow. They are more innovative, because the interplay between people as they work on the same goal helps generate more diverse thinking and improve decision-making. When someone leaves the team, the fact that others have a shared understanding of the work means the team can survive and continue to work effectively. People can go on vacation or leave without as much disruption. And collaborative teams feel great to be a part of — everyone shares the same victories and accomplishments together. A team that doesn’t collaborate often really isn’t a team at all.

To the maximum extent possible, teams should have what they need to succeed within the borders of their team. And where that is not true, you need some structure to ensure the team can get what it needs in a way that will scale with the organization’s growth.

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