How To Break Down Organisational Silos

Take two teams to the North Pole. Set one on a course directly south and the other with just a 1-degree variation. Within 15 minutes, they’ll lose sight of each other. Aligning teams around a shared goal may sound simple, but in practice, it’s far more challenging.

‘Team to team development’ is a coaching strategy that aims to cultivate greater collaboration, communication, and better alignment between different teams and departments across your organisation. While many organisations have strong individual teams, the organisation as a whole suffers if all the teams are not focussed on the same overarching mission. 

In this article, we will look at some of the main barriers to team-to-team development and how these can be overcome.

Barriers To Team Development

Poor Communication Between Teams 

A lack of effective communication can disrupt organisational alignment. It leads to misunderstandings, conflicts, and fosters a ‘them’ and ‘us’ culture between teams. To overcome information silos and foster cooperation, it is crucial to establish clear, efficient communication pathways and routines. Not everyone will contribute to yet another WhatsApp group but they will be grateful for the information that is shared on it. You get the principle – keep the information flowing across whichever channels or application or meeting rituals work best for your office environment and employees. Don’t expect all teams to respond all the time, but if the information is there, it will be absorbed and misunderstandings can be tackled quickly.

Silo Mentality 

In many organisations, it’s all too common for teams to operate in silos, warily observing each other from behind metaphorical walls. This “us versus them” mindset can severely hinder alignment and damage organizational culture. Fortunately, breaking down these silos is both possible and (conceptually) straightforward in its approach. 

The key lies in initiating projects that bring cross-functional teams together. Collaborative efforts not only encourage departments to share their expertise and diverse perspectives but also foster stronger professional and personal relationships. By bridging the gaps between teams, organizations can replace division with cohesion, creating a more unified and effective workplace.

Misalignment Of Teams Within The Organisation 

A ‘cultural island’ is a byproduct of silo mentality, where a team develops its own mindset and objectives that drift away from the organisation’s overarching goals. This is common in large organisations with many regional offices that are physically as well as culturally distinct from a ‘head’ office, that could be in another country.

Some of the differences will be important. Business needs to accept local cultures and business practises in order to compete but when local offices lose sight of the overall mission, problems creep in.

For instance, when organisational goals are not well-defined or fail to cascade effectively from senior leadership to individual teams, those teams may end up pursuing conflicting or irrelevant priorities. Similarly, inconsistent updates from management, poorly communicated initiatives, or inadequate feedback loops can hinder effective communication between the organisation and its teams.

Approaches To Team Development

Improving team alignment within your organisation requires a thoughtful approach to team development. It starts from the belief that teams can adapt and grow together, if they are prepared to learn together as well. Learning how a team is successful (or not) is crucial to sustaining that success. This includes how teams learn to work together successfully.

At Centre for Teams we have proven solutions to support team-to-team development. Our Team Learning Summits work in organisations from as little as 2 teams to up to 150 people at once.

The summits are powerful catalysts for organisational alignment and performance. By bringing teams together across the system, these summits strengthen ‘team-to-team’ collaboration, build trust, and promote shared purpose.

They create a space for reflection, learning, and healthy conversation, enabling organisations to move beyond silo working and develop a deeper, system-wide alignment. The outcomes include greater clarity around roles and contributions, stronger leadership, coordinated action, and sustainable change.

Whether in smaller team-based formats or larger system-wide gatherings, these summits help organisations embed a culture of continuous learning—driving adaptability, productivity, and long-term success.

Next Steps

Align your teams for greater efficiency, collaboration, and innovation in 2025. Get in touch with the experts at Centre for Teams today and begin your journey towards greater organisational alignment.