Most organizations are run as vertical kingdoms. The customer moves horizontally. Silokiller exists to shift the focus from the function to the flow, and to manage by what the customer needs.
In a functionally managed organization, every department owns its own piece. It is measured on its own KPIs, reports upward and receives decisions from above. Information flows vertically.
The customer’s need flows horizontally, straight across every department. Nobody owns the whole journey. Each silo can hit its targets while the whole gets worse, slower and more expensive.
That is sub-optimization, and it rarely shows up in any single department’s numbers.
For years I worked in a functional organization where my bonus was tied to capacity utilization. Every extra percent of busy people and busy machines paid off.
And every extra percent made my operation worse. Queues grew, lead times stretched, and firefighting became the real job. The bigger my bonus, the worse it got for the people we were there to serve.
It took me a while to understand why. The answer fits in two equations.
How long something takes to get through a system depends on how much is in the system and how fast things leave it. It holds for any stable system: a factory, a ticket queue, an emergency room.
A clinic has 120 patients waiting and treats 30 per week. Average wait: 120 ÷ 30 = 4 weeks.
Working harder isn’t the only lever. Starting less work is the other one.
Waiting time grows with utilization ρ, variability V and process time t. The utilization term is the trap: it isn’t a straight line. Near 100% it explodes.
Put them together: chase utilization and queues grow (Kingman). Queues are work in progress, so lead time grows with them (Little). Every function can look efficient while the customer waits longer.
Healthcare shows the pattern most clearly. Departments and agencies don’t talk to each other. The referral becomes the interface, and the patient ends up carrying the information between them.
Every clinic does its job. Still the patient waits, repeats their story and falls through the cracks. The fault isn’t in the people. It’s in how the organization is managed.
Yes, specialist knowledge needs a home. That is the case for silos, and it deserves to be taken seriously.
But expertise can be gathered without management being gathered the same way. Silokiller is the counterforce: let expertise live where it likes, but make management follow the flow.
What does the customer need, and where does the journey start and end?
Where does work wait, where is it handed over, and where is information lost?
Make the flow visible to everyone who is part of it.
Measure and lead along the value stream, not by function.
No customer ever asked for an org chart. They just want to be helped.
Writing on flow, management and how to break down silos in practice.
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