Silo busting the corporation

March 10th, 2010

I met Jeff Saperstein last year, the first time at Reboot Britain Conference where I was presenting, and then shortly after in Cambridge.

I was very interested in what he had to say, and so we stayed in touch. Recently Jeff was in touch regarding his new book Bust the Silos – I have not read it, but I think the proposition is valuable and important. Its about how companies can -re-engineer themselves for the networked society. One of the big issues is as I have often argues that a networked approach to business, marketing, production, whatever is a different logic to a linear industrial one. And for me this is the heartland of what comes next and how we move forward.

And over the last ten years some of the innovation work SMLXL has undertaken for large organisations runs into the same old same old problem. The structure of organisations that are unable to cope with or accommodate a more blended, and, networked way of working. And the friction is palpable.

Its not about a bit of social media hundreds and thousands on top of your latte – though you do have to start somewhere. Howard Rheingold sums it up best for me,

Hasting and Saperstein have identified one of the most important and least-understood changes that people and organizations are undergoing today — the shift from disciplines, departments, and silos to systems, communities and networks. No armchair theorist, the authors draw on their own extensive experience with organizational structural change to show not only how this change is coming about but, most importantly, how to initiate and nurture this vitally important kind of change in your own organization.