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Identifying and Eliminating Silos and Micro-Silos in the Virtual Workplace
Susan Nash1
1American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Identifying and Eliminating Silos and Micro-Silos in the Virtual Workplace: The increasing tendency toward a distributed, virtual workplace where individuals work from home, from the field, or in their offices has led to the emergence of silos and even micro-silos of data. This results in reduced productivity, ineffectual teams, poor morale, and risk for poor decision-making and compliance. Part of the problem results from a positive development: the increased information technology skills of professionals, support staff, and contractors. Another problem emerges when central calendars, databases, and shared resources are not uniformly available. Common problems include the following: crucial information is locked away on individual e-mails or local hard drives; essential data resides with individual users; insufficient licenses exist for key applications, resulting in freeware or shareware driven by user necessity; unstable computer networks resulting in individuals who create backup their own. The lack of a central calendar in which all departments and divisions can log events results in scheduling conflicts, and an inadequate scheduling utility for key tools, equipment, or materials often results in hoarding or siloing of what should be shared resources. Solutions can be fairly simple to implement and can have immediate and positive effects on productivity, morale, and the bottom line. This paper will discuss solutions, the pro's and con's, and implementation strategies for organization with various skill sets, backgrounds, and generations in their workforce.
AAPG Search and Discover Article #90097 © 2009 Tulsa Geological Society, Tulsa, Oklahoma
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