{"id":1581,"date":"2012-06-08T03:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=1581"},"modified":"2012-06-11T13:44:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T20:44:27","slug":"how_to_turn_silos_into_a_culture_of_conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/08\/how_to_turn_silos_into_a_culture_of_conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Turn “Silos” into a Culture of Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted January 10, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

Is your church truly unified in mission, vision and strategy? Or are you, as Bill Hybels once said of Willow Creek Community Church, \u201ca loose federation of ministries orbiting around the central church?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Culture<\/a><\/p>\n

If you suspect that this \u201csiloing\u201d effect has taken root in your church here are three small but important steps you can take today to replace silos with a \u201cculture of conversation\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. End the practice of inter-office email<\/strong>
\nIn the large church where I served as executive pastor we implemented this 3-step plan, starting with \u201cno more inter-office email\u201d without first walking over to their department.<\/p>\n

2. Replace \u201cAll Staff\u201d emails with staff meeting conversations<\/strong>
\nI was shocked in my first weeks at that church how many emails circulated daily to all staff. (\u201cEmail to all staff: Has anyone seen the 3-hole punch?\u201d)<\/p>\n

In place of these manifestos I insisted that such \u201cnews\u201d be shared face to face in our staff weekly meetings.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 Model the discipline of face-to-face dialogue<\/strong>
\nThroughout my day as questions arose I kept an ongoing \u201clog\u201d with each staff person\u2019s name. Next to each name I would jot down a list of questions as they popped up. These would include items of a personal nature, such as remembering to inquire about the status of a sick loved one, etc.<\/p>\n

Then twice a day, usually 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, I would \u201cmake my rounds\u201d. I would visit every corner of the campus and find myself in conversation with staff from every department and every level, from department heads to grounds-keepers.<\/p>\n

Invariably I wouldn\u2019t bump into everyone<\/em> I wanted to see, and in those cases alone I would follow up with an email. But I would start such notes by saying, \u201cSorry I missed you\u2026Please call or drop by, I\u2019d like to discuss\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

My goal in all this was to replace what I termed \u201cthe emptiness of email\u201d with \u201ca culture of conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n

And it worked.<\/p>\n

If you suspect that over-reliance on email has contributed to silos in your organization, give these steps a shot.<\/p>\n

Perhaps a \u201cculture of conversation\u201d is just what your team needs.<\/p>\n

How have you tackled silos in your organization?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted January 10, 2012 Is your church truly unified in mission, vision and strategy? Or are you, as Bill Hybels once said of Willow Creek Community Church, \u201ca loose federation of ministries orbiting around the central church?\u201d If you suspect that this \u201csiloing\u201d effect has taken root in your church here are three small…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[769,478,7],"tags":[771,690,770,62],"class_list":["post-1581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-2","category-featured","category-leadership","tag-dialogue","tag-email","tag-silos","tag-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1581"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1595,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions\/1595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}