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What happens when your employees lose 12 hours per week searching for information that is already present within the organization?
According to a 2022 study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Airtable, employees spend nearly 29% of their workweek searching for information, primarily due to knowledge silos in the workplace.
Imagine this
You and your team are excited to start this new project and are in the middle of R&D when a colleague from a different department casually mentions similar research a few weeks ago.
How frustrating does it feel, realizing that nobody thought of sharing knowledge on the activities happening in other teams around you?
Well, this is a one-off case, but similar things keep happening across departments in organizations. By failing to share knowledge across teams, Fortune 500 companies lose an estimated $31.5 billion per year.
That brings us straight to the question
What is a Knowledge Silo?
A knowledge silo is a situation where a department, team, or team member has data, information, or expertise that is not shared with other departments, teams, or team members. Knowledge silos mostly happen when, instead of collaborating and communicating with each other, a department, team, or team member works in isolation, withholding information.
Sometimes, silos can be good for work, especially when there’s an input required from a single department or a particular team or team members. It only makes sense that the knowledge is retained for everyone to work efficiently. However, this again is a one-off case as most teams require knowledge that exists across departments for teams to work efficiently and effectively towards the shared organizational goals.
Mind you, knowledge silos can negatively impact work, workflow, and workplace if and when information is intentionally or unintentionally withheld.
Impact of Knowledge Silos in the Workplace
While it may still seem like a minor inconvenience, studies prove that it can create severe issues over time.
A 2025 McKinsey study estimates that data silos cost businesses approximately $3.1 trillion annually in lost revenue and productivity.
Knowledge silos can significantly impact your organisation’s
- Productivity
- Efficiency
- Employee satisfaction
Well, that’s not it. Knowledge silos can wreak havoc creating obstacles in the workplace.
Missed collaboration across teams
When departments operate in silos, collaboration between teams can become inconsistent. Information can get lost, opportunities can get missed, and teams may fall out of sync.
“86% of employees cite lack of collaboration for workplace failures.”
Conflicting goals and efforts
Teams stuck in silos can easily lose sight of the bigger picture. Without proper communication, teams become more isolated, and that can lead to each team creating its own goals and objectives, which results in a lack of alignment.
Duplicate work wastes time
Think about it, when you don’t know what the other team member is doing, there’s a fat chance you’re likely to work on the same tasks, creating expensive inefficiencies.
Slow onboarding and productivity
Knowledge silos in the workplace not only impacts current employees, it also slows down the productivity of a new employee. It creates a considerable lag time between when a new worker is employed and when they’re productive. That can be from a lack of onboarding documentation to outdated employee onboarding software.
Poor decisions from limited information
Critical knowledge is not disseminated across organizations due to the absence of cross-functional communication. It leads to poor decision-making and suboptimal business outcomes. Let’s understand this with an example
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The Disconnect Between Product Development & Marketing Teams in a Technology Company
Scenario: In a tech company, the software development team creates a groundbreaking new feature. However, due to siloed information systems, this development is not effectively communicated to the design and marketing departments. As a result, the marketing team launches a new campaign that fails to highlight the feature’s unique selling proposition (USP). Similarly, the design team is unable to reflect the feature’s strengths or intended use.
Consequences: Missed sales opportunities, wasted resources, decreased employee morale, poor customer experience, and a loss of competitive edge.
Underlying Cause: This knowledge silo was created because, rather than seeking updates, teams made decisions based solely on the information available within their own departments. |
Declining customer experience
When employees from the sales and support team waste precious time finding information, it results in a poor experience for customers. Also, fragmented marketing efforts can lead to inconsistent messaging, confusing potential customers, and a declining customer experience.
What Causes Knowledge Silos?
Believe it or not, knowledge silos in the workplace aren’t created intentionally, they just creep in. Sometimes due to isolation, other times due to inaction, and rarely, deliberately. Some factors that contribute to creating silos include
Misaligned Goals
When your company fails to communicate or align its objectives and goals clearly, employees or teams may start focusing more on their desired goals.
Poor Communication
Poor communication across teams and departments can be a primary driver of silos. Without shared platforms and regular interactions, teams may involuntarily keep information from other teams.
No Knowledge-Sharing Tools
Knowledge sharing is also hampered by outdated, insufficient, or non-integrated technology. Not every organization invests in the right knowledge sharing tool or team collaborative tools and platforms that offer a centralized knowledge base.
Departmental Isolation
Rigid departmental structures can encourage isolation that, in turn, discourages knowledge sharing. A work culture that prioritizes department success over organization success is another reason for increasing silos.
Resistance to Change
If the work culture has always been such, employees may find it difficult and resist knowledge-sharing initiatives. They may fear losing the edge they have with withheld information.
These are just a few causes of how and why knowledge silos in the workplace can develop. Addressing them requires a unified leadership team, open communication, team collaboration tools, a knowledge-sharing culture, and more.
Now that you understand how silos can silently creep in your organization and make it hollow from the inside, let’s talk about the efficient strategies that can effectively break it down.
Strategies to Break Down Knowledge Silos
Foster cross-department collaboration
Encourage joint meetings across teams and departments where team leaders share insights and developments of their particular team, product, or service. Cross-department collaboration helps in fostering diverse perspectives that can lead to better problem-solving and innovation.
Use centralized knowledge-sharing tools
Using knowledge sharing tools like Document360 gives your team a common platform where they can share knowledge and information. These tools not only help eliminate knowledge gaps and silos but also help teams be more transparent with each other resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.
Promote open communication
If you truly wish to eradicate silos in your organization you must focus on creating a work culture that promotes open communication, be it in team meetings, on collaboration tools or to the managers. This can be done by regularly organizing team bonding exercises that foster trust and collaboration. However, be intentional about bringing members from different departments together.
Communicate key goals regularly
Remember what we said a minute ago? Promoting open communication starts with you. Set, define, and communicate team objectives clearly and regularly to prevent any confusion or conflicts. When employees better understand their priorities and goals, they find ways to collaborate more effectively.
Make documentation accessible
From Google Drive to Document360, there are an ‘n’ number of platforms that your team can use for document and knowledge sharing. Make sure to choose the right tool so you and your colleagues can create a central hub for all documents related to meetings, reports, and projects.
Align teams with common goals
Your business success relies on many individual teams working together. The teams and departments may have their own goals and KPIS, but altogether are bonded by a few key goals that contribute to the overall company success. Align these objectives and make sure to regularly communicate it to the teams across.
Reward knowledge sharing
Well, this one here is a no-brainer. Everyone wishes to be appreciated and when you recognize and reward your employees for cross-functional collaboration, it encourages knowledge sharing and discourages knowledge silos in the workplace.
Say No To Silos In The Workplace
Silo is a mentality that needs to be broken, and as a leader, you have the power to break it. Creating a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing goes a long way in breaking this mentality. Invest in strategic thinking, regular initiatives, and tools to drive silos out of your organization.
Book a demo to learn about how a centralized knowledge base can help you start breaking knowledge silos in the workplace.
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