2. Functional Silos - alive and well?

(Series Index)

<In future years, BioPharma organisations will need to as efficiently as they can to thrive in a much more challenging commercial world. This series of articles explores what might need to happen to the 'standard model' of collaboration in project work.>

When project managers get together, at the coffee point, in the bar at a conference, or in many other forums, two topics of conversation never fail to surface. Firstly, workload: expectations of fast results with insufficient resources. Secondly, the irritating struggles they have to get experts across the business to work together. Limited communication between departments in an organisation, often referred to as 'silo management', is to this day a common phenomenon in our sector. It is still recognised as a contributor to failures by c. 70% of managers (see 1. below). But why?

Silos persist because of deeply ingrained cultures. 'Culture eats strategies for breakfast', is a famous truism. and for decades has undermined the most common organisational tactic used to make the best of things: matrix management. If you are a seasoned observer, perhaps none of this comes as a surprise. But read on - and see whether you agree with my challenging conclusion.

Silo culture that has grown with the business

"People come to work to do their best. They don't aim to sabotage things. Lack of functional collaboration is not primarily caused by the function team members. it's the system. The environment."

These are the views of Dr Mike Florence, who has spent decades as a Pharma manager, project leader and latterly executive consultant with ibizflo and Phetairos. I interviewed him for this article.

"A science-based company grows because people have a passion to turn great science into products that will help patients. Of course that takes different kinds of scientists: chemists, pharmacologists, metabolism specialists; then clinical experts, regulatory people, and so on. They are proud of their work and thrive working with like-minded colleagues. But as organisations grow, these groups develop into silos. They may focus on aiming for the best quality science, the highest standards - but lose sight of the key question that's been asked."

In their article '3 Types of Silos That Stifle Collaboration' (referenced below), the authors identify this phenomenon as 'Systemic' silos. They emerge naturally, without intent. They begin to cause two major problems:

Firstly, each silo can focus on different goals and different measures of success. Clashes may not be at all obvious until well down the track of project delivery; departments will have their own plans and work packages, perhaps at odds with the customer needs.

Secondly, they become inward-looking. Work packages they complete in order to pass to others, are communicated without consideration of others' timings or practical needs, stresses and strains. Again, they don't deliberately try to create timing bottlenecks. Rather than a lack of empathy, it is frequently just a lack of knowledge of other functions' work and issues.

Mike continues: "I worked on the fourth floor of a Pharma Headquarters building. I was working with one of the finance departments. There was another finance department on the same floor. We sat on different sides - but even though it was open plan, we never, ever communicated verbally! maybe emails, that was all!"

Elitist silos

Sometimes a more intractable problem develops. certain departments begin to perceive themselves as inherently superior in knowledge or status. They may consider themselves the 'inventors' of a product; or their function consumes the highest budget and oversee the biggest corporate risks. Often this status may be promoted by their function's leader being the most senior, influential leadership team member.

The subtle power they hold can be insidious. They may hold on to information, and other functions feel they have to knee-jerk to requests. They may have to rework, causing delays and unwillingly inviting subtle criticism. This reinforces the power imbalance.

How can the Project Manager cope with this?

It isn't easy!

In their article 'Cross Silo Leadership' (referenced below), the authors talk about strategies that can help to limit silo inefficiencies. Indeed we discuss this a lot more in later articles in this series.

Nevertheless, they draw one conclusion that is worth quoting: asking a large sample of people 'what is the relationship that gets prioritised in your day-to-day job?' - the answer is, still to this day, - vertical relationships. When the same people are asked 'which relationships are most important for creating value for customers?' - the answer is different - horizontal collaboration - solutions integrated across functions.

How can we make sense of this tension?

In coming years, the real message I'd like to impart is that this tension shouldn't be minimised - it must not exist. Will we still have the opportunity to allow clashes of purpose, of status, and lack of mutual understanding between vital functions, to delay us and compromise our need to expedite medicines to a cynical patient/government community?

John Faulkes, May 2025.

In case you missed it - the previous article in this series: 'How we got here'.

Look out for the next article in this series: 'The Organisation's Castle - if you thought internal collaboration was a problem ...''. Also, coming soon - our "Lets Talk' session 'Leading Across Silos' - May 20th - Free to join.

Can we help? We are happy to talk! Get a performance diagnosis, the right training or team coaching. If it's outside your remit connect us with your COO! Contact Us to chat.

References

1. Shah, Kull, Kirche. Finkelstadt - 3 Types of Silos That Stifle Collaboration - HBR March 2025

2. Amy Edmondson, Sujin Jang, Tiziana Casciaro - Cross Silo Leadership - HBR June 2019