There is a toxin that is alive and well in gigantic companies such as BP, Microsoft, and General Motors. It also is rampant in the White House and in Washington agencies. The same poison affects large universities and media groups. Gillian Tett, the U.S. managing editor and columnist at the Financial Times, identifies this common plague as the silo effect where people are trapped inside mental and social ghettos, specialist departments, teams, and pockets of knowledge. Management consultants describe a silo as a "system, process, department, etc. that operates in isolation from others." Silos exist in all levels of society. They are not just structures; they are also a product of a state of mind. In spiritual terms, the silo is an obstacle to the spiritual practice of connections.
Since silos are a cultural phenomenon, Tett examines them using an anthropological lens. She presents overviews of eight institutions that reveal both the perils of silos and the benefits of properly managed ones.
In richly detailed chapters she probes silos as innovation crushers, as concealers of risk, as creators of tunnel vision, and as busters of life. On the more positive side, silos can be mastered by rewriting social code, flipping the lens, and breaking them down. Since we cannot abolish silos, we can try to ameliorate their flaws through flexibility, collaboration, imagination, and trusting an insider-outsider perspective.
The Silo Effect outlines the way to an exciting renewal of institutions that are stuck in the ruts of efficiency, accountability, and rigid classifications.
