3. Principle

Silos organized as natural circles of competence in value streams

Because breaking down silos is a mistake

Silos are valuable if the competence available there becomes available for value streams. It does not make sense to break down silos because this contradicts human needs and thus restricts performance.

Violinists like to talk to violinists. Brass joins brass (also because with their hearing impairments they always talk a little louder, which is surpassed by the timpani. But they stand mostly lonely anyway). Then the oboes. Have a lot to talk about, too. For example, how not to get meshugge before retirement with the overpressure in your head. Silos in the orchestra pit. With the right governance, they still play together on the one. You want to throw away all knowledge of agile wisdom and thank the silos that have come together to form the orchestra with a standing ovation.

This is not possible in a purely Scrum and Holacracy way. The agile world agrees on one thing: Silos are prisons and make prisoners and therefore need to be broken down.

Hey, guys, are you serious? People love silos. They like to squat with like-minded people and talk about things they all understand. People like the cozy space of a silo, even if it comes across as concreted over like a bunker. Maybe it’s because of our origins as cave dwellers.

Exactly, say the Scrummies, the time of the caves is over, now it goes out into the open. Silos are yesterday’s news.

Sure, you can say that. But that doesn’t make it a reality. Despite all these well-meaning assertions, people still love silos and take every opportunity to settle in them.

At Rosho.World, we don’t believe in breaking down and tearing down silos. It makes much more sense to leverage silos with augmented leadership and create value streams with transversal teams. All are competent in their own way. All are interdependent and therefore dependent on each other. Augmented Leadership uses competency mapping and organizes meaningful exchanges between silos. This increases efficiency. That’s where the value comes from. Fighting silos does not.