David R. Brousell, co-founder, vice president and executive director, Manufacturing Leadership Council
Recently, research has found that the key to identifying and engaging these informal networks is by identifying influencers across an organization and engaging with them. Each silo represents a comfort zone for the group of employees that operates within that silo, and employees may be reluctant to move away from those comfort zones. By activating networks across the organization, company leadership can promote collaboration without incentivization.
Adopting agile approaches serves to foster the evolution of cultural shifts across teams, enabling them to be more cross-functional. Another tool that can be highly effective in breaking down a range of barriers to collaboration and communication — including differences in age, gender, and ethnicity — is reverse mentoring, where younger employees are paired with executive team members to help those executives connect with a younger demographic.