At 30,000 feet everything looks different. On a recent flight to New York I watched the window seat folks stare at the passing earth. I knew what they are thinking; “where are we?” Is that Arkansas or Georgia? Why are those patchwork squares there? Are they farms? They seem perfect little geometric puzzle pieces. Then a city creeps into view. No defined lines, just kind of a jumble of stuff that has a kind of beginning and kind of end.

At 30,000 feet, borders seem rather silly. They can’t be figured out. Without the pilot telling us, “look out your left window and you will see the Grand Canyon”, we would have no idea where we were.

At 30,000 feet, borders seem rather silly.

In fact, the pilot seldom thinks “I better let everyone know we just entered Kentucky”. Instead pilots point out features not borders. After all, spending your time at 30,000 ft gives you quite a unique perspective on things. It makes your vision incredibly large.

I am fortunate to work with a wide variety of companies in an ever expanding universe of products and services. This grace filled journey of mine puts me into a kaleidoscope of office types. Almost all find ways to define their space through the filter of what people do. Legal is all over there, customer service is all over here, purchasing is next to accounting, sales is on the second floor (actually sales is everywhere!). Some have cubical aisles, others have doomed offices. Everyone and everything, separated.

I attend meetings where the first thing on the table is that “we are getting killed in our lack of innovation, creativity and productivity by our silo mentality”. Areas become defined by purpose and location. Hey, that makes sense when you think about it. It should facilitate productivity, right? I mean you have like functions with like minded people, geographically tight. Yet these borders often facilitate the exact opposite. What develops? It is often referred to as the classic silo problems — an isolation that creates barriers for client after client. I attend meetings where the first thing on the table is that “we are getting killed in our lack of innovation, creativity and productivity by our silo mentality”. We have built wall upon wall, process upon process and system upon system that supports our pockets of activity but never cross a single border. We are architecturally pleasing to the eye, but a nightmare in taking advantage of collaborative potential. Its BORDERS folks, plain and simple. Castle towers of focused activity, essential to outcome, but a huge hindrance in forward motion.

Heck, at Facebook, they simply have no walls at all. Information flows freely in these nimble new world companies. Now many of the new age companies like Zappos and Facebook have handled their silo issue with flair and pizzazz. No silos at all at Facebook and Zappos allow an abundance of creativity that makes their rows of cubicles adventurelands. The Zappos wonderland, from its vine covered aisles to the Hall of Justice inhabited by their legal eagles seems to have found a way to melt the traditional barriers normally created by this traditional form of office set up. Heck, at Facebook, they simply have no walls at all. Information flows freely in these nimble new world companies. In these cyber-based organizations how you work is directly connected with what you do. Every wonder where the kids you see with odd body piercings and ink work? They are working freely in what appears to be a chaotic machine.

So, Steve, are you advocating a storming of the Bastille, an industrial makeover? Tear down these walls and let us free! Oh, how I would love to launch a chaos revolution where how we do things was as important was what we did, but I doubt my doors would remain open for long. Instead, I’m advocating a small step in smashing borders, an idea that penetrates a silo simple process that is in play with many of my clients – The Roundtable.

Imagine a process that breaks borders, encourages cross fertilization and is painless, even in the most rigid culture. The Roundtable Process is elegantly simple; it has a very limited lifespan with only one issue in play. Here is how it works:

• It is a FACILITATED process, so start your thinking with the notion of a guide.
• Provide a gift for Roundtable participants that will be given out at the first meeting. The Invitation (it’s a privilege to be called to participate in a Roundtable). Invite 5 people (no more) from different divisions or departments within the company. Provide a gift for Roundtable participants that will be given out at the first meeting. It shows the endeavor is worthy of their time as seen by the organization. Some of my clients use gift certificates, Starbucks Cards, passes to a movie and dinner. Anything that shows it’s a special deal to be involved in a Roundtable.
• Pick one problem, one issue, one idea that defines the Roundtables mission. Provide ideas that will result in $30,000 worth of savings by year end. Provide three new markets that need our services. Create a marketing idea around our real estate product. Those are Roundtable type issues.
• Each Roundtable has a very defined and limited lifespan. The Roundtable gets five, 90 minute meetings. One per week usually works great.
• The first meeting is critical. It involves homework. The first meeting is critical. It involves homework. The Roundtable needs to hit the ground running to create the kind of momentum that yields results. Get the Roundtable started by getting its members thinking. They need to arrive with ideas already stewing.
• During the next three meetings the Roundtable works around their original ideas to create a plan that provides a solution or new avenue based on the original mission.
• The facilitator guides this team of unique through their mission.
• It has not imploding the existing silo, but instead opened its door and allowed some of its expertise to impact others. At the end you have a delicious solution packed with unique ideas created by a silo/barrier busting process. Individuals are excited about the process, a process that has eliminated the walls of their cubicle and allowed them to contribute to an issue greater in its scale and relationship than they do in their everyday life. It has not imploding the existing silo, but instead opened its door and allowed some of its expertise to impact others.

The necessity of borders is a daily reality in your work place, you know it and I know it. The deal is that these borders not only protect, they stop. To take advantage of the ideas that grow all around you, find a chance to operate outside the borders, beyond the silo’s walls and discover the opportunity. The view is perfect at 30,000 ft.

Interested in these ideas?

You can contact Steve at steve@creativeventures.com or give him a call at 972-490-7717.

See more at creativeventures.com and stephenharvill.com

Steve Harvill • Office: (972) 490-7717 • Cell: (972) 345-9480 • Fax: (972) 386-9569
15615 Regal Hill Circle • Dallas, TX 75248