Look inside The Organization
In response to rapid changes, more and more organizations look to technology for both short-term and long-term solutions. Since technology is deeply integrated into our everyday lives, we won’t see individual luddites as shown in The Luddites (1988) movie. But we do see and continuously experience pushbacks from different parts of an organization when leading digital transformation. One major reason is that most if not all technology integrations will shatter the status quo of an organization, which will create stress and sometimes even hostile attitude and work environment. Some of these pushbacks come from individuals but others come directly from the legacy systems that exist within an organization.
Organizational legacy systems refer to those aging and functionally constrained systems that have a long history of being part of an organization, and that paved the way for the organization to get to where it is today but has become outdated (Molloy & Ronnie, 2021). These legacy systems are deeply embedded in an organization’s daily operations and have created bureaucracies that classify how things should be done in what ways and how each person is expected to function within the organization. These bureaucracies eventually will lead to what Gillian Tett call “Silo Effect” (2016) that create barriers for an organization to grow in today’s digital world. Silo mentality is defined as a lack of information sharing and exchange across the organization. Direct consequences of silo mentality include but not limited to waste of resources, redundant efforts, talented people trapped in traditionally classified roles and positions, and lack of organizational synergies. Therefore, to lead digital transformation in an organization that has existing legacy systems, legacy system migration and silo busting are needed. Leadership silo mentality that is rooted in an organization’s legacy systems need to be broken down and cross-unit interactions and collaborations need to be encouraged and fostered. Below is an interview video featuring the author Gillian Tett on “silo effect” phenomenon.
Don’t Let ‘The Silo Effect’ Disrupt Your Organization
Next, I discuss four areas of interest within an organization that are important to the success of an organization’s digital transformation and to the broken down of silo mentality.
