The Silo Effect: Why Every Organisation Needs to Disrupt Itself to Survive

Gillian Tett has spent years covering financial markets and business, but she's also a trained anthropologist, having completed a doctorate at Cambridge University and conducted field work in Tibet and Tajikistan. She's no stranger to questioning the assumptions and practices of a culture. Those in question financial trading desks, urban police forces, surgical teams within medical clinics, software debuggers and consumer product engineers have practices and rituals as ordered and intricate as those of any far-flung tribe. In The Silo Effect, she uses an anthropological lens to explore how individuals, teams and whole organisations often work in silos of thought, process and product. With examples drawn from a range of fascinating areas the New York Fire Department and Facebook to the Bank of England and Sony these narratives illustrate not just how foolishly people can behave when they are mastered by silos but also how the brightest institutions and individuals can master them. The Silo Effect is a sharp, visionary and inspiring work with the insight, prescriptions and power to remove our organisational blinders and transform the way we think for the better.