Most large organisations waste so much intellectual property and knowledge possessed by their people who work there.  Why is this?  It is simply because organisations tend to work in silos.  These can be vertical or horizontal silos. 

Vertical Silos 

There is generally a hierarchy with senior management, middle management and people below that rank.  How often do they talk to each other, swap ideas and opinions and simply communicate on a social basis? Senior management doesn’t have all the answers.  If the more junior people where asked “could we do that better?” or “how do you think we could increase our turnover or reduce costs?” our guess is that some fantastic answers would be obtained.  It’s unnatural for less senior people to be proactive in coming up with ideas as they might feel they are criticising their seniors. 

Horizontal Silos 

This is where different divisions, disciplines or areas of expertise simply don’t communicate with each other because people like working in their comfort zones. Again, if we got personnel in the various departments communicating more, to exchange ideas and opinions there has to be so much more knowledge and expertise shared. Test it.  Ask 10 people in 10 different departments what other people do in those departments and see what answers you get.  The chances are the conversations will be short! 

Solution 

If people build relationships more freely, and this can only be done by a change in strategy by the management, then this waste of intellectual property can be reduced dramatically. 

Cross selling

In  addition to wasted cerebral resource there are so many opportunities lost for multi-service firms and companies to cross sell to existing clients.

The simple reason is people are comfortable promoting their own expertise but feel totally uncomfortable promoting others. They don't really understand what other people do and in bigger organisations often wouldn't even know who to recommend if they did.


Networking 

From our vast experience we know that when people go networking to gain new business, it is a challenge to 99+% people.  Working a room is a nightmare and following up opportunities creates similar negative feelings.  It’s all about meeting new people in new and strange surroundings.  In other words people are out of their comfort zones.  Whether it is external networking or internal networking people’s fears will be exactly the same. The key is encouraging people to get to know each other and understand what others do. That way lots more knowledge is gained and people begin to feel more comfortable working with, promoting and undertanding what other departments do. 

 Our Proposal

 It is proposed that we run a 3 hour workshop which will show delegates how to overcome all their fears when “working the room” albeit in an internal environment.  We will also touch on how to follow up in a professional manner if the occasion should arise at the end of internal meetings. Networking is simply building relationships and the 3 key steps to these are knowing, liking and trusting.  We believe the  issue in line with many other large organisations is that people from one silo simply don’t know people in the other silos, because of this lack of communication.  When we show delegates how much fun meeting people from different disciplines can be, not only will it be good for the company but everyone’s job can become far more interesting when they have a wider range of people to help them do their job better. Whether it is external networking to sell more or internal networking to know more, the principals of building a relationship is just the same.  People buy people first and if we can get colleagues in various departments talking to each other, this will have a massive positive effect on both the company and its employees.

Topics Covered 

We can help

If you and your company need help on how to cross-sell your services more effectively, please contact us for more information. 

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A valuable message for everyone working in larger organisations

"I recently joined the bank and realised that I was a secret! I work in the area of personal banking for the more affluent customer and thought I need to meet colleagues in the business and corporate divisions. So I made a concerted effort to start networking internally. As a result I have already built some really great connections who have already given me some great contacts. In addition, as networking is about giving first I am able to introduce them to the  small but growing contacts in my section of the bank.

In these particularly challenging times I believe it is as important, if not more important, to be building relationships internally as well as externally.”

Louise Clague, Premier Relationship Manager, HSBC BANK PLC