I’m an introvert. I became an engineer because I love solving problems. In most cases, this involved working alone to solve problems. Only one problem: silo thinking and doing is more often a career-ending problem. Unless you’re a certified genius, who’s made loads of money, pay attention to these caveats:
First, what’s a silo? Think of a corn field silo. It stands alone storing all the grain in a region. Well, people, teams, departments, and plants can do the same thing. They don’t participate, cooperate, or work with others. They protect turf and use special information to devalue others.
The lone ranger is also dead in many organizations – the lone engineer developing killer software, the lone salesperson selling million dollar systems, or the lone CEO visioning the future of a billion-dollar company. No one person has the skills to do, inspire, and know all things. There is too much diversity and access to resources and information. No one person is as smart as a group.
To destroy silos, companies are saying to all loner geeks to learn teaming in what my cynical friends call kum-ba-ya camps.
It’s happening in the office, on the manufacturing floor, and in creative services. Teams come in many forms. Team members in one company are called ‘associates’ and are real process stakeholders. They participate in decisions that traditionally were the purview of middle management such as deciding whether to buy a major piece of equipment.
Life Lesson Earned: If you don’t like working with people and being part of a team, then: 1. Get a mentor; 2. Listen to your wife; 3. Go to charm school; 4. Get a career coach; 5. Find a new way to make a living if all else fails; or 6. Move to Siberia.