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You are here: Home / Collaboration And Convergence / Departmental Isolationism and other Collaboration Fallacies

Departmental Isolationism and other Collaboration Fallacies

August 17, 2017 by Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

departmental isolationismDepartmental isolationism fosters a safe place in which legacy mindset hides out.

For starters, that type of mindset impedes horizontal, cross-functional collaboration.  Talented individuals are segmented and separated from working with each other.

Then, lack of shared insights impacts the ability to provide better and better customer experience for clients. Finally, poor communication results in poor service delivery quality, which gradually erodes customer success and customer retention strategy.

Us versus Them mindset does not work, folks. In fact, it never worked.

Ultimately, is Collaboration even perceived as being valuable to your organization? Do you realistically understand how to capture, measure and articulate how a collaboration culture contributes to your organization’s value stream?

The best recipe for reinforcing mediocrity is permitting departmental isolationism to continue as the workplace norm.

First, you cannot have each other’s backs when departments are at each other’s throats. When hiring strategy reinforces departmental isolationism – even in companies of five or less –  teams think linearly rather than cross-functionally.

Second, using historical incidents to reinforce departmental isolationism are just that: ancient history. The current and future workforce cares little about Who did What to Whom. All employees understand is that they cannot access critical data for decision-making because it is hoarded in data kingdoms more fiercely protected than in any Game of Thrones™ subplot.

Third, linear thinking within departmental silos breeds professional complacency. However, complacency runs counter to the dynamic, not static, nature of today’s globally competitive business ecosystem.

Fourth, technology advances within the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) ecosystem create continuous workplace momentum. Consequently, clients you served yesterday wake up somewhere new, each day. Are you keeping pace, lagging behind or becoming increasingly proactive and anticipatory of their needs?

How do you liberate yourself from departmental isolationism?
  1. Acknowledging and translating the issue becomes a healthy organizational start.
  2. Seeking collaborative, non-linear solutions, rather than applying isolated training-as-usual to individual, departments, reinforces translational thinking.
  3. Treating the system as an organic whole, rather than as specific, isolated symptoms, accelerates cross-functional, departmental collaboration and organizational transformation.

However, chew on this thought.

You can continue to read blogs like mine and download resources. However, while continuous self-learning is a solid strategy, collaborative learning blossoms outside of that vacuum inside your head. If you currently work within a rigid environment, taking the first step to learn how to cross train your brain takes courage.

That next step is where many professionals hold themselves back from moving forward with commitment and momentum.

What steps will you take, today, that positively impact your professional credibility, tomorrow? Overcoming departmental isolationism, both your own organization’s and your client’s, leverages continuous professional development. Start here, today.

Babette Ten Haken is a STEM-trained catalyst, corporate strategist, storyteller and facilitator. Her focus? How collaboration revolutionizes and humanizes the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) value chain. The results? Increased customer loyalty, customer success and customer retention.

 Babette’s One Millimeter Mindset™ programs draw from her background as a scientist, sales professional, enterprise-level facilitator, Six Sigma Green Belt and certified DFSS Voice of the Customer practitioner. Babette’s playbook of IIoT team collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. Do you know the Top 5 Negative Customer Retention Scenarios? Find out here.

Image author: viperagp  Image source: Fotolia

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Filed Under: Collaboration And Convergence, Customer Experience, Success, Loyalty, Retention, Professional Development Tagged With: collaboration, cross-functional collaboration, customer retention, customer success, departmental isolationism, linear thinking

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