There’s no question that better thinking emerges when leaders broaden their views of issues beyond their functional siloes. Shared challenges —like recent tariff concerns in Canada—often create innovative breakthroughs and push leaders beyond their usual approach.
Effectively tapping into this collective wisdom has always been a hot topic within organizations. We continue to see headlines about return to office (RTO) mandates, with improved collaboration and innovation often cited as key reasons companies need to end their hybrid work arrangements.
In our experience, focusing on logistics isn’t going to be the silver bullet to solve collaboration woes. If collaboration was solved by having everyone ‘in-person’, then the phrase ‘breaking down siloes’ would never have existed. And let’s face it, we’ve been talking about that problem for decades.
To truly drive collaboration, leaders need to think with intentionality about when collaboration is required and what approach will produce the best results – whether that’s in person, remote or something in between.
Hybrid Work Is Here, But It’s Rarely Collaborative
Our recent research found 71% of high potential leaders work in hybrid arrangements, with an additional 9% fully remote. Through our coaching at The Roundtable, we hear how hybrid work solutions fall short:
- Productivity is up, but innovation is down.
- New hires require more time during onboarding to get up to speed.
- Younger employees are missing opportunities for mentoring and growth.
- Mandated “days in office” schedules impact connection with other functions who have different in-office schedules.
- Rule-following employees are frustrated when they sit in front of Zoom all day while their colleagues work from home.
It might feel like the only (or easiest) option is to bring everyone back to the office, but it doesn’t have to be.
The key to cross-cutting siloes
The latest leadership competency buzz word is ‘cross-cutting’: that ability to work across organizational siloes in order to deliver superior results. I believe it’s the number one leadership skill to build in 2025.
Our research found 48% of high potential leaders say improving cross-functional collaboration and communication is one of their top three challenges. If you want to improve collaboration, it’s important to look at the entire system. Not just the location of where people sit.
To support building a leadership culture of collaboration:
- Define the outcomes that better collaboration will achieve. Too often leaders focus on tasks and outputs over outcomes.
- Ensure that your office space has plenty of room for collaborative activities. If working together is critical, then make sure your meeting rooms outnumber your cubicles and that the technology supports hybrid meetings to maximize the experience for all attendees.
- Reward for collaboration. Tech giant Microsoft places a heavy emphasis on collaboration and has built explicit rewards for collaborating into their annual performance measurements. What gets rewarded gets done. If you’re not rewarding people for collaborating, why would they?
Make Collaboration Strategic, Intentional and Specific
If you’d rather be a magnet instead of a mandate when it comes to where work needs to get done, here are some questions to consider:
- What are the key outcomes you believe increased collaboration will deliver?
- Where is siloed-thinking blocking outcomes?
- Do any existing policies or practices make it difficult to collaborate?
- What groups or functions should work more closely together?
- Does everyone understand why collaboration is a priority? Have critical behaviours—which could include cross-functional collaboration—been clearly defined and incentivized?
- Have you given your direct reports guidance on how to coach and mentor their teams around these behaviours?
- Where is collaboration not necessary? How can you define roles and accountabilities more clearly to help team members manage their attention and focus?
Specificity is key. If you can clearly articulate the ‘why’ behind collaboration, chances are that convincing people to come into the office won’t be as much of an uphill battle as you anticipated.
We discuss collaboration and connection in The Roundtable Report on High Potential Leaders, our latest research on understanding a cohort of best and brightest leaders — their challenges and what they hesitate to tell their senior leaders.
If you’re struggling to break down siloes or adapt to hybrid environments, book a call with Liane Taylor to explore how we can support you. Our proven processes in team coaching and group coaching have been designed to drive alignment and accountability, and are adaptable to the rapidly changing requirements of today’s work world.
