This article is written by Kitty Wooley, founder of the Senior Fellows and Friends network and retired civil servant from the US federal government.

  • The problem: One reason young employees don’t initiate contact across their silos, or stovepipes, whether working remotely or at the office, is that they assume they don’t have the power skills for it. And, however helpful more seasoned teammates may desire to be, many who’ve internalised feelings of helplessness are unable to show new people how to begin.
  • Why it matters: Recent reports show that bridging ties within organisations atrophied during the pandemic and that empowerment survey scores have declined (see first two links at the end of the article). At a time when reaching across is more important than ever for the development of self-efficacy and progress on cross-cutting problems, employees may feel even less free to venture beyond their teams.
  • The solution: Employees at every level have a choice to make. Since this series focuses on what an individual can do, we ask whether employees will choose the easier yet disempowering path of being seen and not heard or whether they’ll insist on the freedom to converse with and learn from whomever they will at work. If they choose the latter, they can begin from where they are to develop ‘boundary spanning’ capability.

Who says you’re not ready to talk to others beyond your team, and have you examined their assumptions? Concern about your inadequacies could be combining with your fears and assumptions to keep you stuck. You can’t do everything, but you can do something. If you sit passively in your silo and burden your supervisor with the full responsibility for your development, it becomes more difficult for either of you to make progress.

What are power skills, anyway?

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines power skills as “abilities and behaviours that facilitate working with others and help project professionals to succeed in the workplace.” PMI conducted extensive survey research on the link between power skills and project success in 2022, finding that almost all respondents — across countries and industries — reported measurably better results when team members had both technical and interpersonal skills. The global project management community identified the top four power skills (communication, problem-solving, collaborative leadership and strategic thinking) whose presence had the biggest impact on return on investment, or ROI. The response was so unambiguous that it has led PMI to redefine its professional development model.

The high stakes of siloed behaviour for government and society

You can learn about the stakes in any public report about a stubbornly persistent, large cross-cutting problem that your country’s Supreme Audit Institution publishes (in the United States, this is the Government Accountability Office, or GAO). Scratch the surface, and lack of progress nearly always has something to do with solvers based in different organisations who were unable to overcome their parochial mindsets to craft solutions together. If new hires were encouraged to practise reaching across to colleagues in other parts of their own agencies, the confidence and broader perspective gained over time could gradually predispose them to work toward solutions with people from other organisations.

Does it grow government’s capacity enough if only a few senior executives and employees who’ve been identified as “high potential” in an organisation develop boundary spanning capability? It hasn’t so far. One reason leadership development programmes that train senior civil servants to network across agencies to tackle problems show only negligible results is that senior people are being given fish, rather than everyone having been taught to fish from day one. The boundary spanning behaviour, which has been initiated and supported by the programme managers, often stops when those programmes end, resulting in little more than expensive belt notches for a chosen few. You can gain visibility into this problem by reading such programmes’ public reports and thinking about the calibre of results that are cited. Imagine the effects on the talent pipeline and on problem-solving potential if everyone became predisposed to connect with others, after having practised making low-stakes experiments in connection during the flow of work.

Boundary spanning capability is integral to leadership and followership, cooperation between teams and knowledge transfer within and between organisations. Its practice ought to be a given from day one. If more public service leaders had not developed in silos themselves and were willing and able to flex their leadership styles, articles like this would be irrelevant.

The high stakes of siloed behaviour for individual employees

This is about more than building relationships with people in other parts of the organisation, although that matters. What silo-crossing is really about is enhancing your confidence in your own ability to plug into new situations and begin adding value. That comes from being able to initiate contact with colleagues elsewhere, which also prepares you over time to hold your own in conversations with senior leaders. Meaningful results will ensue from teaching yourself to fish and from accepting every cross-cutting opportunity an enlightened supervisor may offer. Accelerate your ability to add value by thinking both/and — BOTH say yes to opportunities with cross-silo potential AND begin making your own small boundary spanning experiments. Ease and confidence develop through practice.

One benefit of reaching across to others outside your team for conversation is that you’ll understand more deeply the work of other units and how it relates to your work and that of the organisation as a whole. While you’re at it, you’ll discover the subtle differences in how each unit operates. That familiarity will prepare you to be invited into larger conversations. At the same time, you are likely to identify future opportunities and potential mentors.

Although the ultimate owner of your work experience is you, you don’t have to do everything yourself.

Will you acquire the opportunity to practise boundary spanning only over long years, after other fallible human beings declare you capable and worthy, or will you accelerate your own progress by beginning to connect with other colleagues now? Further, do you realise that taking such initiative equips you to move readily to other work you may enjoy if this work abruptly goes away?

Experiment and learn to empower yourself. The quality of your work experience depends on it.

If you want to talk to people outside your unit but you feel blocked, then try something new and only slightly scary, like inviting a colleague who interests you or a potential mentor you admire to meet you for lunch or a virtual coffee chat after work. Send an exploratory text or email first – do not begin with a calendar invite! Come prepared with easy questions on topics like their accomplishments (do basic research before you meet), their leadership approach, or what they enjoy about the kind of work they’re doing. Tell them about your work. If they’re willing to talk about their personal life or engage in small talk, follow suit, and stay alert to common interests. The best relationships are two-way, which is why reverse mentoring works: is there anything you have that they need? Have the conversation and see what happens.

Although the ultimate owner of your work experience is you, you don’t have to do everything yourself. Assistance from learning and development staff, coaches and counsellors can be found inside organisations and online. If you’re feeling unempowered, ask for help in identifying the choices you’ve made at each fork in the road, rethink them, and make new ones. As American steer wrestling cowgirl Netta Simpson is quoted as having said in 1902, “No one can keep me down if I have a mind to get up.”


https://bestplacestowork.org/analysis/profiles-in-improvement/effective-leadership-empowerment/
Partnership for Public Service, 2023

  • Power Skills: Redefining Project Success


Project Management Institute, 2023
https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/power-skills-redefining-project-success

  • Permission to Practice: Public Service Boundary Spanning


https://seniorfellowsandfriends.org/permission-to-practice-public-service-boundary-spanning/
Free ebook, interviews, and role-plays by the author and eight colleagues, 2021. 

  • Earlier Apolitical articles by the same author on practical boundary spanning:


Give yourself permission to practice: The case for developing ease in boundary spanning (January, 2022) 
https://apolitical.co/solution-articles/en/give-yourself-permission-to-practice

Harness your desire and curiosity to jump start your career: Practise boundary spanning to the point of ease(February, 2023) 
https://apolitical.co/solution-articles/en/harness-desire-and-curiosity-to-jump-start-your-career 

Aligned Boundary Spanning is More Effective: Understanding Alignment is a Source of Strength (March, 2023)
https://apolitical.co/solution-articles/en/aligned-boundary-spanning-is-more-effective

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