Today The Internets Ask About Silos

Today's interesting question (that got referred to my Web Log by Google due to some fractured coincidence in word use) is:

how is the wizard of oz an example of tearing down silos

That's a very interesting question! Very interesting! "The Wizard of Oz" is very High-Concept, as any number of sociological, historical and religious academicians can testify, and being all Kansas-oriented as "The Wizard of Oz" is, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were some subtle silo references there too.

In today's business world, silos are generally believed to be bad, bad, bad:

It may surprise you to learn that, for more than one hundred years, business "silos" have been a very good thing. In fact, ever since the start of the Industrial Revolution (in the mid 1800s) functional experts have done most of their work inside of silos. And silo structures empowered and protected their expertise.

But, as we all know, in the 21st Century business world silos have come to be very bad things. That is because, in today's collaborative environment, silo walls isolate the people working inside of each silo from the people who are working inside each of the other silos.

More important, a company's silos isolate everyone who works inside one of them from the company's customers (who are outside).

So, the second step that a quantum leap team needs to take is to tear down their silo walls.

In the Nuclear War biz, one needs sturdy silos, but in the absence of a major enemy, tearing down silos is probably a good thing too.

Nevertheless, not everyone agrees about the merits of tearing down silo walls:

More and more analysts, consultants, and business people have come to the conclusion that "the problem" with IT is silos.

...Silo bureaucracies impede communications, reduce efficiency, and increase costs. Unique silo agendas prevent teamwork and attainment of common objectives. Thus many come to the conclusion that silos are bad and must be torn down.

I disagree. I think silos are useful and need to be strengthened, not torn down. But before we tear them down or build them up, let’s slow down and talk about how silos are built.

Silos can be created by location, technology, capability, language, and many other means. The occurrence of silos within organizations is not only natural, but it is also common. Contrary to popular belief and the prevailing thoughts of many IT consultants and industry analysts, silos are actually a very good thing.

Consider the field of medicine where healthcare providers all work in silos, which is a very good thing -- I for one would be quite wary of going to a podiatrist when I need an ophthalmologist. ... Silos are the only proven way to manage a hierarchy of related groups of specialists and their support systems.

This fellow does have a point. There is no point in going to the Ophthalmologist Silo when you need to find a podiatrist. The podiatrists are all in the Podiatrist Silo! Duh!

I think Dorothy's problem in "The Wizard of Oz" is that the Tornado put her in the wrong silo. She should have been in the Kansas Silo, but she found herself in the Oz Silo instead. That made for some very interesting adventures - heck, if not for her would they even have thought about making "Wicked"? - but you have to ask what the end result ultimately was. After some tentative balloon flights Ozians didn't start taking flights via Southwest Airlines to Kansas, or vice versa. No, lots of adventures were had by a few, but there was no real commerce to speak of, in the end. Despite some good stories the silo walls didn't get torn down. The silos stood intact in mute witness to the strength of their construction.

So, "The Wizard of Oz" is more a misfiling error than an example of anything good about tearing down silo walls. It's like the introduction of prickly-pear cactus from Argentina to Australia in the 1840's. The Australian climate was perfect for the cactus and there were no predators to keep it under control. By the 1920's, places like Queensland were overrun with the prickly stuff, and they had to introduce the Argentine Cactoblastis moth to infest the cactus, kill it off, and rebuild those precious Pacifican silo walls. Today, Queensland is in better shape (although the slower-paced three-pear cactus might also prove a problematic pest in the future).

So, to each, their proper place.

Here's a amusingly-xenophobic (but spot-on) video about knocking down silo walls.

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