Nobody built the silos on purpose

That is exactly why they are so hard to see, and so easy to keep.

Hey,

How are you?

These weeks are just flying aren’t they. This week has been another exciting one, I got to deliver a key note in a clients delivery conference, thankfully they all laughed in the right places and had some amazing reflections about my joint favourite C word….

“Connection”!

My other favourite is ‘Curiosity’, more about this in upcoming weeks but if you’ve been reading between the lines over the last 9 months you will know that is the topic of my next book.

Anyway….this week, how good teams go quiet, because understanding it is how you stop it.

Now then, no leadership team decides to become siloed and guarded.

It happens by accumulation, one reasonable decision at a time, until the guardedness looks like how we are and nobody remembers choosing it.

Watch how it builds.

A director defends their function, because they are accountable for it, and that is reasonable.

A new member stays quiet in their first few months, because they have not earned the right to push yet, and that is reasonable too.

Someone offers a real challenge, it lands awkwardly, the room cools, and they quietly decide not to do that again.

None of it is malicious. All of it compounds.

Add a common and underrated ingredient: frictionless agreement.

A leadership team that never really disagrees is usually not aligned, it is avoiding, and most leaders read the smooth meeting as a good sign when it is often the opposite.

If your team leans on one or two dominant voices while everyone else defers, you are not hearing your team. You are hearing the loudest two.

Here is the part that matters.

Environments built by accumulation can be rebuilt the same way, one honest conversation at a time.

And it starts with connection before challenge.

You cannot ask a group to disagree well before you have built the trust that makes disagreement safe. That trust is the first real piece of work, and it is almost always skipped.

The question for your commute: what happened to the last person who genuinely disagreed in your leadership meeting, and who was watching?

The step: go first. At your next meeting, name something you got wrong, out loud, and then invite challenge on a live decision. Watch how the room responds when the most senior person makes it safe.

How safe is honest challenge in your team, really?

The Conversation Cost Scorecard gives you a straight read in five minutes, before it costs you another good decision: [SCORECARD].​

That is this week’s. If it landed a bit close, that is usually the sign.

Have fun

Lee

I help senior leaders turn a group of capable individuals into one team that leads as one. Start with the Conversation Cost Scorecard: [SCORECARD]. Or book 20 minutes, no pitch: calendly.com/gklee/team-coaching-intro