🔒How to break silos for better collaboration

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“Collaboration Begins with You — Be a Silo Buster” by Ken Blanchard, Jane Ripley and Eunice Parisi-Carew (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $23.95).

While virtually everyone in business acknowledges the “hive mind” power of collaboration, there are those who pay it lip service while building silos and micromanaging. Before reading the book, find out if you walk the collaborative talk by taking the self-assessment (pp. 137-142). Also, ask peers and your staff to take it from the “how you work with them” perspective. Your results and the shared perspectives create your mindset for “aha learning” from the authors” “UNITE” model:

“U — Utilize Differences” — You always learn more from those whose views differ from yours. Encouraging discussion and debate shows people that their input has value. Even if their path wasn't chosen, they'll have a grasp about the “why” another was.

“N — Nurture safety and trust” — By sharing key points about successes and missteps, you create learning opportunities. These allow staff to connect dots to others on the team to show that “we” achieves organizational and personal goals. The process improves timeliness of communication, too, and builds a culture of trust and respect.

“I — Involve others in crafting a clear purpose, values and goals” — It's all about buy-in. When people are involved from the get-go, they understand what and why, as well as the agreed upon approach. They hold each other accountable for the execution of how.

“T — Talk openly” — Ask, don't tell. Seek feedback by asking questions. Use it to create a “yes, and … ” conversation. Also, encourage networking as a way to establish relationships, which broaden each teammate's understanding how others think, act and react.

“E — Empower yourself and others” — Collaboration begets learning, which begets continuous improvement, which begets improved performance. It's all about building your brand as a team player and go-to person.

Key takeaway: “None of us is as smart as all of us.” Silo dwellers never maximize their productivity (and that of those around them) because they never see the bigger picture. Without a real assessment of the perspectives of others, their analysis of a situation will be incomplete.

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“The Storyteller's Secret — From TED Speakers to Business Legends, Why Some Ideas Catch on and Others Don't” by Carmine Gallo (St. Martin's Griffin, $15.99).

Simple, brief and clear make Gallo's “organize-and-tell in 3s” point. When people think and listen, they inherently look for patterns to cue understanding, and “three” quickly establishes an easy-to-follow, memorable pattern.

There are three components to effective presentations: the headline, the narrative and a call to action. “The headline is one sentence that's going to grab your listener's attention and put the narrative into context.” When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, he told the audience all they needed to know about what was coming — “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Richard Branson offers this advice on headlines: Use a Twitter-like format (i.e. 140-character limit).

Relative to the narrative, Gallo viewed numerous TED Talks to see what really moved the audience. The speakers consistently used stories that connected to the headline throughout their presentations rather than statistical evidence and jargon. Why? People often see their own experiences in the stories of others. Even when they can't, they see “stories as flight simulators for real-world scenarios.” In either case, stories deepen their understanding of the why, what and how of the message.

Incorporating personal stories shows your authenticity. By inserting your experiences into the narrative, listeners see someone who believes in the message. Where there's belief, there's trust and understanding. 

Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.