Earlier this summer, Canopy hosted a Community Conversation Webinar on the topic of Crossing Departmental Divides. People at mission-driven organizations tend to be passionate — often about different aspects of the mission and work. We often hear a concern that different departments feel isolated from one another. Bridging traditionally siloed areas of our organizations (e.g., conservation, education, curatorial, marketing, science, etc.) can be a real challenge, in part due to our very busy jobs. It can be hard to find time to think beyond the immediate challenges that arise on any given day. We wondered, how can we foster greater internal collaboration? How have mission-based organizations successfully bridged traditionally siloed areas? And how might leaders need to modify their approach in order to address this perennial concern?
To explore these questions, Canopy Director of Planning Anna Musun-Miller and Vice President Lori Perkins teamed up to moderate a webinar with panelists:
- Rosalío Rubio, Zoo Curator of Education for Visitor Engagement at the Los Angeles Zoo
- Marcus Harshaw, Senior Director of Museum Experiences at the Carnegie Science Center
- Jennie Janssen, Assistant Curator at National Aquarium, Research Associate at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and President and co-founder of Minorities in Aquarium and Zoo Science (MIAZS)
Following are some takeaways from the well-attended and engaging conversation, and a link to the full recording:
What does siloing look like to you in your current role? Where are the pain-points that you’ve experienced?
Jennie:
- The pain points come when folks have emotional reactions, and when information comes out about something happening that may impact your department that you didn’t know about – this lack of communication has the ability to drive a wedge between departments.
Marcus:
- The acronym NETMA (No-one Ever Tells Me Anything) is my warning sign – when we hear NETMA, we know that we missed something in the communication, and it happens more often than we think.
Rosalío:
- Sometimes there are sensitivities that require that information shouldn’t be disseminated, which creates the challenge of wanting to keep the team informed while ensuring that the information is kept internal. It’s a question of building the trusting relationships that allow everyone to feel confident in what’s shared. That’s a two-way street, because people also need to trust that information will be shared when the time is appropriate.
Jennie:
- Regarding the trust question, an option can be to let people know the information but emphasizing that they can’t share it yet. We can let folks know what’s up but make sure they understand that we are working to lay it out strategically and when we’re able to share more broadly, we will. This is helpful to team members because then they know at least there is a plan.
- Also keep in mind the risks of using “bcc” in communications. A person who is bcc’d often starts to worry – why is this a secret? Who else has been told? Bcc can cause more problems than it solves!
Participant chat:
- The zoo and aquarium world also has a long history of being fearful of telling our stories transparently, and different areas have different comfort levels with that. It adds another layer to the communication challenges as we work to be okay with not being perfect and allowing audiences to go on the real journey with our organizations.
- We also need to remember that if we’re not telling our stories transparently and allowing the public to come along on our journey (the goods, the bads, and the in-betweens) then they are not being told our stories, or they’re being told by others in ways that fit their other agendas. We’re also depriving the public of the opportunity to build understanding and empathy for our profession.
What are some of the ways that this has not worked, or where things have gone sideways with strategies that you thought would be effective but were not?
Rosalío:
- There can be difficulties with different personalities – maybe some folks have enjoyed the silos a bit, and perhaps don’t want to have to work cross-departmentally. Things are continuing to get better, but this sometimes comes up.
Marcus:
- Communication is a big part of it. Some of the challenges are related to difficulties working across multiple campuses. The norms have developed over a long time and there is a lot of history.
Jennie:
- The “baggage” is not just institutional – it can also be personal. Bringing in outside influences can make things more clunky, but in most cases that needs to happen.
What have you seen done well when breaking down silos related to jealousy between departments? For example, if one department “gets” to go to conferences, participate in conservation activities, be highlighted by leadership, etc. (or the perception that that may be the case)?
Jennie:
- In the animal care world we get to do some really cool things sometimes. We’ve tried to open it up to folks when we can, but sometimes there are limitations.
Rosalío:
- There had been a grant that had historically been available only to keepers, and a few years ago it was made available to everyone. This resulted in some discontent when other departments started getting the opportunity. There can be unintended consequences to breaking down silos.
Participant chat:
- The departments that historically “get everything” can be possessive when they start having to “share”!
- Another barrier can be other supervisors not wanting to allow time for their staff to participate in such special experiences due to concerns about accomplishing basic departmental tasks.
- In one experience, everyone on staff got a “keeper” shirt, which leadership thought was a great way to diminish silos, but the animal care team was not happy. So not only did leadership miss the mark, but they didn’t engage the right people beforehand and it ended up not going over well with everyone – an important lesson in considerations for approaching such efforts.
- A positive example was an institution that did a career panel for the paid internship program, and there was broad participation from departments all across the zoo who enthusiastically opted to participate. This was a first! It was amazing to see the excitement across the board. An unanticipated outcome of such opportunities is enabling staff to hear from others and feel more aware of what was happening in other departments. People really enjoy learning from each other.
- People love being asked to share their work and the role they play – especially departments outside of animal care who don’t always have the spotlight.
- When a department is not engaging in such opportunities, it’s a signal to directly speak with them to understand barriers. A lot of the time it is a feeling that it is not meant for them.
How about examples of successes? What techniques have proven most valuable to you, and why do you think they were successful?
Participant chat:
- Coming off of National Zoo Keeper Week and having heard the gamut of comments from “we need a whole week to be appreciated because we’re underpaid/underappreciated” to “this should be for all staff because everyone is key to providing good care to our animals (i.e., we need resources/facilities/etc. to care for them)”, there is also a general cultural shift we need to make in our profession to overall increase appreciation/recognition/compensation/supportive leadership so that everyone DOES feel well recognized/appreciated/etc. daily. That really starts with leadership at all levels to be able to create and implement that cultural shift.
Jennie:
- Relationship building between individuals is what’s been successful. It’s a more time-consuming process, but when you have individuals who can communicate and build trust, it makes the rest a lot easier. If there is time and opportunity to build those relationships – that has reaped so many benefits.
Participant chat:
- Yes! Take the time to build social capital.
- Having a common space where everyone can congregate can help; and having snacks there encourages people to come by, say hello, and build relationships.
- Those sorts of gatherings can be used to introduce people – we do tend to gather with those we already know, so those who have relationships outside of their departmental group can be encouraged to help build bridges. Introduce someone and share why that person is cool or they should chat with another person!
Rosalío:
- We have created the “culture club” – they plan events and things for the whole organization. It gets folks mingling and talking. Also, everyone likes a little appreciation and acknowledgement. Taking the time and effort to offer this can help build bridges.
Anna:
- Intentionality matters, as does transparency, in the formal and informal development of relationships, cultivation of connection across departments, and providing recognition. All of that is wrapped up with being intentional.
Click here to view the full webinar recording.
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