Breaking Silos / Shifting to an Enterprise Mindset

Background: A number of our clients have faced this specific challenge, where there sales, marketing, finance, and other functions effectively operate as separate organisms within the broader company structure. The leadership team runs an analysis that determines the hidden costs of this competition and decides to push for a cultural shift that would lead to a better integration among these different functions, with the final goal of reaching a point where each function area operates seamlessly with one another.

The Case for TypeCoach: In order to build bridges between different functions that have historically been competitive and/or adversarial, it is important to introduce a common, neutral language. By decoding certain behaviors and approaches, participants see the value in diverse thinking and, more importantly, are provided with techniques that will make their interactions across functions succeed.

Deployment: One pharma client (1,600 staff) buys a site-license to our tools for the whole company, and runs regular open registration courses for all function areas. Other clients have done a broad-scale deployment involving mixed group sessions where people from sales, marketing, finance, etc. attend together and have healthy discussion about improving their interactions.

Reflection: Shifting organizational cultures in this way is especially challenging because the behaviors tend to be deeply engrained and reinforced over a period of time. In many cases, much of the client’s historical success stems from the slightly competitive dynamic that exists between these function areas. However, at scale, it is not sustainable.