Five Threats of Silos for the University Executive Team

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Silos pose the greatest risk to university mission. No matter the institution’s strategic objective—whether it’s to increase persistence, grow enrollment, expand one’s global footprint, or shape a more diverse class—inevitably it’s silos that seem to get in the way.

All signs point to the silo problem getting even more complex. We continue to live in a world of rapid change and uncertainty, and the future will require even more specialized skill sets and roles (i.e., business intelligence), not fewer. Many of these skills are designed to bridge silos, but they also bear the risk of increasing matrixed complexity even further.

The aim of this brief from the Higher Education Strategy Forum is to create a shared vocabulary and spark honest dialogue among college and university cabinets about where their institutions’ aspirations are most likely to run into the problem of silos. In the brief, you will find five silo threats outlined, as well as representative prompts and questions for executive team reflection and conversation.

Download the brief or explore each silo threat below.

Silo Threat #1. Swim Lane Confusion

Unclear decision rights and responsibilities stall or halt cross-silo leadership decisions. Shared governance typically receives much of the blame for the slow pace of change at universities. But even in decisions that rest wholly with administration, and even when there’s general agreement that something needs to be done, executives worry that they don’t have the right frameworks and infrastructure for making effective decisions as a leadership team.

It’s often unclear who needs to be at the table, who has decision rights, and whether they have the right lines of sight into the information needed to move forward. This confusion and uncertainty stalls decisions and actions, sometimes to the point of permanent paralysis or leading to tentativeness when bolder action is required.

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Silo Threat #2. A Thousand Flowers

Silos keep innovation trapped in pockets, rather than scaled. Higher ed’s critics often complain that the sector lacks innovation—which is a patent falsehood. Visit any campus and it’s clear that entrepreneurial thinking abounds. What most colleges and universities lack turns out to be true across sectors: how can organizations ensure that the right innovations scale?

One of Jim Collin’s main takeaways in Great by Choice is that the most successful organizations over time aren’t those with the boldest, riskiest bets. Instead, they combine the pursuit of many small experiments and pilots, paired with the discipline of knowing which ones to scale (and which ones to discontinue). Letting a thousand flowers bloom isn’t the way to a sustained, distinctive advantage.

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Silo Threat #3. “The Butterfly Defect”

Silos cloud our ability to spot and prevent future risks. Where the best-laid plans often go astray is unintended consequences. The phrase “butterfly defect” has been used to describe the challenge of interdependent systems; a single action in one silo can have cross-functional ripple effects. Individual stakeholders and “loosely coupled” units often don’t have the information or training to see the impact of one discrete event on the whole; meanwhile, those aware of the likely challenges feel helpless to avoid or mitigate them. Additionally, a type of bystander apathy can set in, whereby individuals are less likely to act when they assume someone else is handling the problem.

We hear worries about the butterfly defect across campus. A VP of enrollment might express frustration that a decision to reduce writing center capacity was made without a discussion about the disproportionate impact on international students, a current recruiting target for the institution. A chief business officer worries that current financial and facilities commitments are being made across campus without projecting future, cumulative costs. A VP of student affairs notes that the information to get ahead of campus climate flashpoints is often out there—but not yet aggregated.

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Silo Threat #4. Tunnel Vision

Siloed thinking leads to incrementalism in future planning. In candid moments, presidents admit that strategic planning is one of the most time-consuming but also one of the most frustrating endeavors in higher ed. Countless hours too often result in plans that provide little guidance for resource prioritization, and too often sound exactly the same as the institution down the road. And even when strategic plans start with bold directions, they end up losing ambition when it comes to translating vision statements into action plans.

While there are many reasons why strategic planning efforts disappoint, silos can explain much of why incrementalism is the norm.

“Our teams are so immersed in their day-to-day that when they tried to come up with future plans, these ended up being what we’re doing now, just slightly better.

-University President, Small Private Institution

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Silo Threat #5. Difficult Dance Partner

Silo challenges apply not only intra-university but also extra-university. Across the cabinet, many university executives spend much more time on external partnerships than in years past and expect that only to increase in the future.

Extra-university partnerships bring two types of silo challenges. First, the university as a whole is its own kind of silo within the larger region or community. Second, the university’s own silos make higher education a challenging partner for other organizations to navigate.

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