Interaction 16

What is the impact of silos in large corporations with multiple divisions, worldwide offices and multiple product lines? How often have we found ourselves in a situation where there are breakdowns in communication, co-operation and co-ordination between different teams and stakeholders?
As designers, it is imperative to recognise what we can do within our organisations to break these patterns that lead to inefficiency and contribute to the demise of a collaborative company culture. In-house designers often wear the hat of a service design consultant providing design thinking to other departments they work with in the organisation. Design tools such as the 'Engagement Toolkit' provide an extremely powerful suite of activities and hands-on workshops that break down existing barriers of inter department communication and provide a holistic viewpoint of how different teams impact each other. It also acts as an extremely relevant tool of the trade for design consulting firms as it provides them with tools they can use when engaging with large corporate clients.