Break down team silos

Stephanie Whyte, Learning and Development Manager at SKY TV New Zealand, approached Wires Uncrossed with the challenge of helping to break down silos and create clear communication between three technical teams. These teams traditionally operated very independently within the organisation.

We worked with her technical teams and leaders to identify customers and stakeholders, create cohesion between the three teams and challenge them to work collaboratively as a group. Here’s Stephanie’s take on the session.

The problem

The wider team is made up of three, traditionally separate functional teams - so naturally, they’re used to focussing on just their function. As a company, we’re making a conscious effort to break down those silos, bring those teams together and work in a more collaborative way.

The second part of the problem is that we have a crew of over 900 people that work with us, which means as the Learning and Development Manager, I’m often wearing many hats. I had originally planned to deliver the session myself, but found myself too time poor and in need of someone who could help, but not just anyone. Specifically, I needed a communications expert who had experience working with a technical team - some who understood tech-team outcomes and focussed on less fluff and more solid solutions.

Eithne and the Wires Uncrossed team were the perfect unique fit to facilitate the session and work with our technical teams, so I reached out.

The approach

Eithne delivered a brilliant session with our team (the first of many, we hope!), covering change management, collaborative and cohesive working, and working with the team to understand the different stakeholders we work with across the board - not just within one particular function.

There was really good engagement throughout the session. The leaders were impressed with how well everyone got involved and contributed and I’ve only heard positive feedback. We’re currently working through the recommendations and reviewing the outcomes of the session with the leaders involved to plan the next step, but overall I was really impressed with the output that Eithne provided. She captured everything in the session and it was really encouraging to see the volume and breadth of work reflected back.

The outcome

I witnessed the outcome happen during the session when we worked through the customer value proposition piece. A key outcome for me was people from individual teams realising the breadth of the customers that they were collectively responsible for. It was a big shift to see people move from thinking only about their own stakeholders, to a group perspective.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Eithne. We had a considerably short lead time, but it was seamless to brief her in, she quickly understood the problem I was trying to solve and her processes were really conducive to building the right solution for us. The aftercare and follow-up has also been amazing.