Culture
Stop silos from killing your strategy
When teams connect early and work as one, ideas don’t just survive the process—they get sharper, stronger and more effective.
Break the silos, build the work
Creative breakdowns rarely start in the brainstorm. They begin earlier, quietly, between teams. Strategy develops in one lane. Creative gets briefed too late. Execution is forced to fill in the blanks. Everyone’s doing great work … just not together. And when that happens, ideas get diluted, deadlines stretch and no one’s quite sure how the final product drifted so far from the original intent.
Silos don’t just slow down work. They totally derail it.
The best work happens when thinkers and makers, planners and doers, all show up. When teams share context, not just tasks, that’s when insights translate, ideas sharpen and execution aligns. Not because the process is perfect, but because the people are connected.
But this is easier said than done. How do you actually break down silos without breaking process? Let’s dig in and talk about what works and why.
Creating intentional moments for alignment
1. Start together:
Bringing everyone into the conversation early sounds simple, but it’s often skipped in the name of speed. In reality, it’s the fastest way to align. When strategy, creative and execution hear the same brief, ask questions together, and understand the context behind the work, they’re not just reacting, they’re co-creating.
Take the challenge of aligning sales and marketing teams. We use our SOLVEsession™ to bring groups into the same conversation early. This way, we align goals, build a shared language and are committed to the same outcomes. The result isn’t just smoother handoffs—it’s stronger work and measurable growth. That early alignment means every piece of creative isn’t just on-brand, it’s on-purpose. These sessions help result in a message that resonates deeply because it was built from shared understanding.
2. Speak the same language:
Different disciplines naturally speak in different terms. Designers think visually. Strategists lean on insights. Marketers want outcomes. That diversity is a strength, until it turns into confusion.
Whenever possible, we use frameworks like our Brand MEDS—Marketing, Experiences, Design, Storytelling—to keep our teams connected. It’s not just a checklist. It’s a way to make sure every part of the process is speaking to each other, not past each other.
Creating a shared language makes collaboration easier and execution smoother. It keeps teams from building beautiful ideas that don’t solve the real problem—or solving the wrong problem with beautiful ideas. By adopting a common language around the brand’s value and purpose, each function can approach their role with shared clarity.
3. Share the outcome:
When ownership is divided strictly by department, it’s easy for accountability to stop in your lane. But when the whole team owns the outcome, they think beyond their roles and the work gets better for it.
A better approach is co-ownership from day one. On one project, the client and agency teams decided the process wouldn’t be a series of handoffs at all. Instead, they worked as a single unit, brainstorming together, making design decisions together, even reviewing early drafts side-by-side. Questions got answered in real time. Feedback happened while the work was still taking shape, not after it was too late to change direction.
That level of trust shifted the dynamic completely. By the time the final product rolled out, there was no question of “who” had done “what.” Everyone had built it together. And it showed. It showed in the cohesive message, the polished execution and the confident delivery.
Breaking silos starts at the top
Cross-functional collaboration works best when leadership champions it, not just in words, but in how projects are structured and decisions are made. If the people setting priorities and budgets aren’t invested, silos tend to creep back in.
Getting leadership on board doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. It comes down to three things:
- Leaders respond to impact. Quantify the missed opportunities, rework hours or revenue losses caused by disconnected teams. Make it visible.
- Link collaboration to results. Bring examples where early alignment between teams led to faster timelines, stronger creative or better performance metrics. Hard numbers make it harder to dismiss.
- Make “yes” easy to say. Propose simple, repeatable ways to connect teams—like joint kickoffs, shared KPIs or one standing cross-team touchpoint. The less disruptive it feels, the more likely leadership will support it.
When leaders see that collaboration is a performance driver, breaking silos stops being a “nice to have” and becomes a non-negotiable.
Better work starts with trust
At its core, breaking silos is about people, not process. It’s about giving every voice a seat at the table, and trusting each other to bring their best, so you can all focus on the same goal. When teams connect early and build together, the work gets better, with results everyone can be proud of.
