Improve Communication By Breaking Down Silos: Easier Said Than Done

November 10, 2008


I had a bit of a sobering revelation Thursday night.

At CPRS Toronto‘s workshop “Relationship Management=Inspiration and Prespiration”, AgencyLink‘s Sheila Corriveau and Stan Didzbalis asked for our feedback on how we had resolved communication problems at our jobs.

It was both reassuring and troubling to hear that many of us faced the same conflicts-missed deadlines, disagreements over communications plans, and personality clashes.

We’re all communicators, and yet we seem to have trouble communicating.

The comments at last night’s workshop show we have a good idea how to resolve conflicts when they arise. But, as communicators, we’re in a unique position to stop communications problems before they start.

So where to begin? The biggest obstacle to proper internal communication seems to be workplace silos. Agencies and clients-or agencies and company departments-are acting as separate teams instead of a unified whole.

It was stated over and over again that breaking down these silos was the only way to beat these communication issues. However, no one had a clear suggestion on how to do it.

So what’s the best approach to breaking these silos down? How do you overcome the issues that keep silos in place-rules and regulations, ego issues, and just plain corporate red tape?

It’s something I’m going to take a better look at-and hopefully come back with a list of solutions.

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