Silos Are Killing Your Team—Here’s How to Fix It

I can bet money you’ve seen this happen…

• Teams working in their own little worlds, barely talking to each other.

• Sales and marketing pointing fingers.

• Operations and customer service constantly clashing.

• Information getting lost, work being duplicated, and simple decisions turning into a nightmare.

Silos.

They slow everything down, frustrate everyone involved, and make collaboration feel impossible.

So what do companies do? They restructure. They retrain. They create incentives to force teams to work together.

And yet, after all the effort (and money) poured into breaking silos down, nothing really changes.

Why?

Because they’re treating the symptoms, not the root cause.

That’s the core message of Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes’ Harvard Business Review article, Want Collaboration? Accept—and Actively Manage—Conflict.

They argue that the real problem behind silos isn’t a lack of teamwork—it’s conflict.

The Truth About Silos (That No One Talks About)

Silos don’t exist because people are bad at collaborating.

They exist because:

🔥 Different teams have competing priorities

🔥 Each department has its own incentives

🔥 Everyone is working in different ways

So naturally, when teams don’t see eye to eye, collaboration feels impossible. And instead of dealing with the real reasons behind the tension, companies throw surface-level solutions at the problem—new processes, new structures, another round of “teamwork training.”

But you can’t force people to collaborate without first dealing with the underlying friction. And that friction? It’s conflict.

The Mistake Companies Keep Making

Most leaders believe that the more they improve collaboration, the less conflict there will be. But here’s the plot twist: pushing for more collaboration actually creates more conflict.

Think about it—when you introduce new structures, shift responsibilities, or tell teams to work more closely together, you’re forcing people with different goals, ways of working, and perspectives to interact more. Of course, there’s going to be tension!

And that’s not a bad thing.

Conflict isn’t the enemy of collaboration—it’s what makes it work. When handled properly, conflict forces teams to:

✅ Talk through tough issues instead of avoiding them

✅ Challenge assumptions that might be slowing the company down

✅ Make better, faster decisions based on real discussion, not guesswork

The key isn’t to get rid of conflict—it’s to manage it the right way.

So How Do You Fix It?

Weiss and Hughes outline two key strategies:

1️⃣ Teach teams to manage conflict themselves – Instead of waiting for leadership to step in, teams need the tools to handle disagreements productively.

2️⃣ Have a smart escalation process – Not every disagreement needs to be bumped up the chain. When teams can solve most issues on their own, leaders spend less time putting out fires.

When companies get both of these right, silos start to break down—because teams aren’t just being forced to collaborate, they’re actually learning how to work through their differences.

That’s exactly what we do with our Team Insight to Action System at Art of Teams. We don’t just tell teams to collaborate—we give them the structure and skills to resolve the conflicts causing silos in the first place.

The Team Insight to Action System: Turning Conflict into Collaboration

This system is how we take teams from frustrated and stuck to aligned and working together like pros. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Diagnose the Root Issues

Before jumping into solutions, we dig deep to find out what’s actually causing silos in your team. We do this through:

📌 A Team Health Check to assess strengths and gaps

📌 A Listening Tour to capture what’s really going on

📌 A Team Insight Report to surface the biggest blockers to collaboration

This isn’t about making assumptions—it’s about finding the truth behind why teams aren’t working together.

Step 2: Optimise Collaboration with Structured Problem-Solving

Once we know what’s causing silos, we bring teams together in highly structured, facilitated sessions to:

✔️ Get on the same page about priorities

✔️ Solve real problems together (not just talk about them)

✔️ Develop a clear action plan to fix what’s broken

This isn’t just another meeting. It’s a focused, results-driven process that gets teams aligned fast.

Step 3: Mobilise Teams for Rapid Wins

Most collaboration fixes take months to show results. Not here.

In just two weeks, we help teams test and implement solutions to break down silos—fast.

🚀 Teams apply what they’ve learned immediately

🚀 They get quick wins that prove collaboration works

🚀 They build real confidence in solving future challenges

And the best part? These aren’t one-off fixes.

The Lasting Impact: Teams That Keep Getting Better

Once teams go through this process, they don’t just solve one problem. They:

✅ Gain a repeatable way to fix silos on their own

✅ Develop a long-term roadmap for continuous improvement

✅ Have the confidence to manage conflict instead of avoiding it

At Art of Teams, we don’t just break down silos. We give teams the tools to collaborate better, faster, and with real impact—long after we’re gone.

The Bottom Line

If you want to fix silos, stop focusing on collaboration and start managing conflict.

Most teams don’t struggle because they don’t want to work together—they struggle because no one’s given them the tools to resolve their differences productively.

When teams learn how to handle conflict the right way, silos stop being barriers—and start becoming bridges.

With the Team Insight to Action System, teams don’t just talk about collaboration. They live it, every day.

🚀 Ready to break down silos in your team?

Let’s talk.