Analysts...are you working in silos? Breakout!

One of the common questions that analytical managers ask me is whether analytical teams should sit together, or be distributed amongst the organisation, in order to be close to the stakeholders they are supporting. 

There are significant benefits in integrating analysts into stakeholder teams, but the practicalities and logistics of doing this are simply not workable in many cases, not least if stakeholders are situated geographically elsewhere.

The case for silos

Most organisations keep their analysts in teams located in the same physical area. There are good reasons for this:

• It’s generally better for knowledge-sharing and promoting best-practice
• It helps to build camaraderie amongst the analysts
• It makes it easy for managers to provide mentoring and support

The case against silos

However, this ‘silo’ approach can typically lead to the team working passively rather than proactively – with analysts defaulting to communicating via email and phone rather than face-to-face. 

The problem with a passive setup is that it’s far harder to nurture effective working relationships and rapport with stakeholders – which makes it impossible to gain their trust. Also, there is greater risk of misinterpretation without face-to-face communication. 

The importance of networking internally

We’ve all experienced receiving an email where our initial reaction was to feel offended, confused or angered, only to then meet the sender in person and find that their written words do not align with their intended message and sentiment. 

Dr Albert Mehrabian (author of ‘Silent Messages’) conducted research on nonverbal communication. He concluded that, when conveying feelings and attitudes, only 7% of any message is communicated through words, whereas 38% is through vocal tone and 55% is through nonverbal signals such as gesture, posture and facial expression. 

The scope for misinterpretation is considerable, and it will only lead to one thing for the analyst: inability to deliver work right first time.

For this reason, it’s so important for analysts to recognise they need to make a greater effort to engage face-to-face with their customers – and proactively. 

Analysts often complain about being ‘out of the loop’ or the last to know when the goalposts move on a project. This is common, especially when working in silos. 

The bottom line

So, analysts must make extra effort to get out into the business and meet face-to-face with each stakeholder, even if it’s just attending a team meeting once a month or making a point of saying hi at the coffee machine. Not only will this help improve that vital commodity of trust and credibility with internal customers; it will also improve commercial awareness, and your analysts will begin to develop mutual empathy with their stakeholders. 

In my experience, the investment of time that this takes in the short term is often paid back many times over in the longer term.

So, encourage your analysts to be proactive, breakout of silos and force themselves into the loop!

Steve Hulmes. Head of Demarq Academy – providers of soft skills training for data analysts