A Systems Approach: Breaking Down Silos in Organisations
- Klaus Lombardozzi
- Jun 30
- 4 min read
In the dynamic and interconnected African business landscape, fostering seamless collaboration is paramount for sustainable growth. Yet, many organisations grapple with an invisible but powerful barrier: silos. These vertical divisions, often unintentional, stifle innovation, hinder communication, and ultimately limit an organisation's true potential. This is where the ORSC (Organisation and Relationship Systems Coaching) approach, grounded in Relationship Systems Intelligence™ (RSI™), offers a powerful lens for breaking down silos in organisations and fostering true organisational development and collaboration.
The ORSC systems approach shifts focus from individual parts to the relationships between them, recognising that an organisation is a living, interconnected system. Whether those parts are individuals, departments, or even external stakeholders, understanding and nurturing their interactions is key to unlocking collective efficacy.
What Are Typical Silos in Organisational Structures?
Silos are deeply ingrained divisions that occur in almost every organisation, often emerging from the very structures designed for efficiency. At its core, a siloed mentality represents a vertical focus, where departments prioritise their internal goals over the horizontal flow of information and collaboration that drives overall organisational success. Common examples include:
Functional Silos
Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR, Sales, IT – each operating with its objectives and often limited interaction with others.
Hierarchical Silos
Divisions between senior leadership, middle management, and frontline staff result in communication breakdowns and a lack of shared understanding.
Geographical Silos
Separate branches or regional offices operating independently, potentially duplicating efforts or failing to leverage collective insights.
Project Silos
Temporary teams becoming isolated, failing to share learnings or best practices with the broader organisation once their project concludes.
Explore more about CRR Afrika's mission to support coaches and leaders in achieving their goals through systems inspired leadership and coaching.
How Is Silo Mentality Created And What Keeps It In Place?
The creation of a silo mentality is often an unintended consequence of traditional organisational design and performance management. When organisations design structures around distinct functions and then drive performance through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) measured purely within each silo, they inadvertently foster a competitive, rather than collaborative, environment.
Leaders who are incentivised solely by maximising their department's performance bonus can unwittingly nurture a silo mentality. Their focus becomes internal, optimising their own team's output without fully considering the downstream or upstream impact on other departments. This narrow focus can lead to:
Lack of Shared Vision
Departments are losing sight of the overarching organisational goals, focusing instead on their localised objectives.
Information Hoarding
Reluctance to share data or insights that might benefit another department but not directly impact their KPIs.
Blame Game: A particularly harmful side effect of silo mentality is the prevalent blame that occurs at the interface between silos. When issues arise, fingers are pointed at the "other department," rather than engaging in shared problem-solving. This undermines trust and makes breaking down silos in organisations incredibly difficult.
Redundant Efforts: Multiple departments are working on similar initiatives without knowing it, wasting valuable resources.
How Does the Systems Approach of ORSC Break Up Silo Mentality?
The ORSC systems approach fundamentally shifts the perspective from individual parts to the relationships that connect them. It recognises that the health and effectiveness of an organisation stem directly from the quality of these interdepartmental and inter-personal relationships. This is crucial for how to break down silos in an organisation.
ORSC, Leveraging RSI™, Helps Organisations to:
See the "Third Entity"
Coaches help teams and departments recognise that the relationship between them is its distinct entity. This "third entity" has its own needs, communication patterns, and potential. By focusing on it, blame dissipates, and collective ownership of the relationship's health emerges. This is key to breaking down silos in an organisation.
Highlight Interdependence
Through specific ORSC processes, teams gain a visceral understanding of how their actions directly impact others. This awareness enables them to move beyond their internal KPIs and appreciate the ripple effect across the entire system. This is a foundational step in finding silo-working solutions.
Amplify All Voices
The ORSC principle that "Every member of the Relationship System is a voice of the system" is vital. It encourages leaders to actively seek and integrate perspectives from across all departments and levels, ensuring diverse insights contribute to holistic solutions, counteracting the siloed mentality.
Coach the System
Instead of coaching individuals within departments, ORSC coaches the relationships between them. This involves facilitating dialogues that expose the underlying dynamics of silo mentality, address inherent tensions, and build stronger horizontal connections.
Foster Shared Purpose
By focusing on the collective intelligence and inherent creativity of the entire system, ORSC helps organisations rediscover and commit to a shared purpose that transcends individual departmental goals. This common ground is essential for breaking down silos in organisations.
While silos represent the vertical components of an organisation, the horizontal aspect of the organisation can be represented as the relationships, the flow of infromation and collaboration between the silos. ORSC's focus is to enable the sum of the organisation to be truly greater than its parts, dismantling the siloed mentality and fostering an environment with a dynamic of collaboration and innovation.
Leveraging ORSC and Relationship Systems Intelligence (RSI™), offers a robust framework for building resilience through change management and ensuring sustainable growth.
ORSC Training with CRR Afrika
CRR Afrika provides a comprehensive ORSC training curriculum designed for leaders and coaches across the African continent. While our programs are primarily delivered online for accessibility and flexibility, we also provide in-person training for intact teams when deeper, hands-on engagement is needed.
The five modules that comprise the full ORSC Training curriculum provide leaders and coaches with over 30 powerful tools and 20+ key skills to establish Relationship Systems Intelligence and enhance psychological safety wherever people come together to achieve something.
How to Stay Connected?
Register today or explore our 2025 schedule to join one of our introductory modules. If you'd like to learn more about how ORSC and RSI can help you as a leader or coach, contact our team. We are always happy to connect.
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