Our department heads are treating our planning sessions like a budget war, fighting for their own silos instead of what is best for the company. How do we break this silo mentality?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When department heads fight for their own budgets and resources, they are demonstrating high self-orientation. They are viewing the company through the lens of their individual department rather than as a single, cohesive team. This silo mentality blocks execution and makes it impossible to achieve your V/TO®.

To break this behavior, you must change the rules of engagement. Remind your leadership team that when they sit at the leadership table, they wear their leadership hat first and their department hat second. Their primary responsibility is the health of the entire organization, not just their own department.

During your quarterly planning sessions, align everyone around a shared set of company-level Rocks before you discuss department budgets. This forces them to agree on what is best for the overall business first. If a department head continues to fight for resources that do not align with the company's top priorities, use the IDS® process to address their self-orientation. By shifting their focus to the collective goal, you can transform a group of individual department heads into a unified leadership team.