.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;}
I am too young to have worked during the 1950s or before, but the picture I get of that era is that you picked a job and stayed with it until retirement. There was no cross-training, because there was no fear of people going to Monster.com to find a better job. I can’t speak to people’s contentment during that period, but I can’t imagine that coming to the same desk, the same people and the same work for 43 years was a great way to bring new ideas into an organization.

That type of environment would build a culture where the person is the process. If you needed to set up a new account, Cliff was your guy. You didn’t know what he did to set up an account, but he would put your request on his stack and get back to you when it was done. No one ever questioned Cliff; he was the process for new accounts.

Process improvement would be hard to promote in that world. All we know is that Cliff gets the work done. We don’t know the steps he takes and the system he touches.

I see this trend today. I cannot count the number of times that I have been told over the last year, “Well, at least we still have a job.” That statement takes us back to the time when Cliff was the process. As innocent as this phrase is, the underlying attitude will cause lasting damage to any company. This phrase encourages what I am calling here the “personal silo.”

Process improvement movements for years have been fighting against the department silo and trying to replace it with a process-oriented approach. Unfortunately, the tough times we are experiencing today cause some employees in some companies to take silo thinking one more step in the wrong direction. They figure that if they know more about the business than anyone else, they can’t be laid off.

So whose fault is the personal silo, and how do we fix it? If you hear this phrase in your company and you are in management, it is your fault. As managers, we have forgotten our business school training. Do W. Edwards Deming and his 14 principles ring a bell?

Principle No. 8 is: “Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.” As a manager, what fear are you allowing into the workplace? Are you doing incremental layoffs every month? Have you not told your people where they stand?

Until we start treating our employees like partners, we will never drive fear out of the workplace. We must be willing to open up our business to the employees and let them come to the table to provide ideas and make tough choices. We are adults, and our employees are adults; sometimes tough choices must be made, and we cannot hide that from our employees. Until we drive out fear, employees will continually hoard information and ideas so that their job is seen as more important than the next guy’s.

Once you create a Cliff on your team, it will take years for him to give up the practice.

Jason Greer consults with small to medium-sized businesses in Central Iowa.