How do you break down communication silos?

I see this in much of my work. Be it silos from different teams not communicating, or simply a lack of understanding of what communications involves. When a team goes rogue, or takes up the communications gauntlet it is a big sign that your audience is not connected. Signposting is key. Send your message across many channels to ensure that you engage your audience. We all have different learning styles and preferred ways of consuming our content. A panel interview recorded as video can be made in to multiple media messages and used across a variety of channels. Working smart means you produce one piece of content that's shared in multiple ways. The more touch points you have the better. Consider all these aspects to stop silos.

Ensuring your team understands the vision, mission and values of a company is key. This helps when delivering to a team directive, as much as helping hone what you share in personal development discussions with peers and leaders. By keeping messaging to topic, be it a specific mission statement, or value, both staff and customers/audience understand what you, the company, are delivering to. Thus you can be held accountable and ensure that mission, value, purpose and goals are fully understood by all. This approach helps instil trust and accountability for all. Another way that silos are easily broken down and a truly engaged audience is nurtured.

This is a very relevant topic and one that often gets internal communicators in a bind. To break silos also means to establish credibility as an expert and a go-to person who can 'sense make' the moving parts and pieces and bring a cohesive strategy to the Big Picture. Bringing everyone on the same page is also about listening to the core issues that plague teams in large firms. From the lack of visibility to inadequate understanding of the role and reach of internal channels.

The most important way to bust silos is to recognize your informal network as your "ninja" internal communication channel, and take the steps you need to take to understand it. Don't rely on your managers and HR folks to tell you who they think the influencers are. Do the work to find it out yourself - either through Organizational Network Analysis or through Snowball Analysis. There are proven methodologies for understanding and engaging with your informal networks - they are worth the time and money to use.

Before delivering feedback to others, take into consideration their personality, how they process feedback and the impact or outcome you want the feedback to have. To better understand personality types, explore tools like Gallup’s Strengths Finders or Meyers Brigg. Adjust your feedback style to the personality type. For example, a person who is analytical may want details and metrics as part of the feedback. How you deliver the feedback should align with the ways people process feedback in that group. In the western hemisphere, visual communication dominates with 60% of the population. Last, tie the feedback to the “why”. Knowing the benefit of changing behavior motivates people to grow and change.

Along with traditional training, have regular 1:1 meetings with your employees. These private conversations create trust and allow your employees to open up and talk freely. The most important thing to do is listen first. Only then can you begin to coach your employees and open up communications.

Breaking down communication silos is critical for the health of the organization and its employees. The top-level leadership commitment and support to this process is essential to make significant changes. Regular meetings or updates involving representatives from different departments ensure that information is shared across the organization and everyone is on the same page. Also, it's necessary to develop strategies for resolving potential conflicts. Encourage open and constructive dialogue to resolve differences. Having said that, breaking down communication silos is an ongoing process. Continuously assess, adapt, and refine your strategies to ensure long-term success.