We Have Always Done It That Way

Every association divides its work into departments. This is not unique to associations, of course, but associations seem particularly good at it. There are associations with less than ten staff people that are able to maintain six or seven departments! Division of labor is a rational thing to do, of course, and the department structure is not evil, but it does tend to generate a serious morale-buster: silo wars.

Even with one- and two-person departments, you will find people complaining about how the other departments are not pulling their weight, or are getting too much of the budget, or lack professionalism, etc. Nearly everyone complains about the “other” departments, and the complaints come from every level in the hierarchy. People waste time complaining about the silos, and they often end up constricting information flow because of unnecessary competitiveness. We’re all on the same team, people, why can’t we just get along?

Unfortunately, it is not just about getting along. No matter how strongly you urge your employees to cooperate and work cross-functionally, if you don’t take care of some important issues at the top of your organization, the silo wars will continue. It sounds counterintuitive, but working on issues among the senior management team is the best way to get the complaining at the staff level to stop. There are three key areas that require attention, all of which are areas that associations typically undervalue.

Focus your strategy
Silos will cooperate when they get clear messages about priorities. Association strategic plans typically break down by department, allowing each department to focus on their own goals, but also generating unending debates about whose goals are more important. All departments have importance, but your strategy still must have a focused rallying cry to guide the short- to medium-term. Everyone is important, but right now we’re focusing on this. When that is communicated clearly and consistently, people will more readily work together towards that goal.

Tighten your senior team
You must include accountability around silo competitiveness as a component of senior team effectiveness. Many associations do not. They overemphasize technical expertise (after all, government relations and meeting planning are fundamentally different things), allowing Vice Presidents to focus primarily on their own department. Issues of competition between departments then become “personal” (which means they are ignored, and fester). This dynamic needs to be nipped in the bud. Issues that generate competition need to be identified and resolved quickly and visibly at the very top of the organization. Without that behavior modeled, it will be too easy to start a campaign of justified complaining at the lower levels. When members of the senior team fail to do this, there must be consequences.

Make the time to do things together
You do not have to restructure into a “matrix” organization or send your people to an off-site to get them to work more cross-functionally. What they need most is a better understanding of what the other departments really do. To learn that, they need to spend time with their colleagues in other departments, working with them, talking to them, asking questions. This takes them away from their own work, and that is perfectly fine. The time you save in inter-departmental cooperation will more than make up for it. But the leadership must support this time investment and manage workflow accordingly. That might even involve modifying deadlines within your own department, if necessary. You must demonstrate your commitment to supporting cross-department cooperation if that is what you really want.

Tags: Staff Issues, Strategy, The Way We Manage, We've Always Done It That Way // 1 Comment »