Why decision-making silos persist (and how to truly break them down)

In today’s fast-paced and high-stakes business environment, the ability to make timely, high-quality decisions isn’t just an operational advantage, it’s a strategic imperative. Most organisations understand this. They invest heavily in frameworks, governance models, and decision-making protocols. And yet, many remain stuck in a frustrating pattern: decisions are slow, fragmented, and often duplicated across teams. Silos persist, not by accident, but as a product of deeper structural, cultural, and psychological forces.

They emerge as companies scale, when teams become narrowly focused on their own goals, data, and tools. Over time, unclear decision-making chains, misaligned incentives, and cultural hesitancy to challenge norms compound the problem. Technology can reinforce this divide when systems don’t connect, leaving teams to operate with incomplete or conflicting information. The result is duplicated efforts and missed opportunities. To make real progress, leaders need to uncover the root causes.

The hidden cost of over-structuring

When decision-making stalls, the instinctive response is to double down on process. We see it all the time:

• New rules for decision-making
• Tighter escalation pathways
• Clearer sponsor roles
• Revised collaboration models
• Freshly minted operations playbooks

These interventions make sense on the surface. They offer structure, clarity, and guardrails. But too often, they fail to deliver real change. After all, even a very well written manual is often unused, or simply inadequate, for the complexity at hand.

Why? Because these solutions focus on the visible symptoms, not the root cause. They address surface-level issues (often the observable events) but leave the underlying system untouched.

The problems below the waterline

To make a real dent in decision-making dysfunction, you have to go deeper. Think of the problem like an iceberg:

At the top: You’ll find the obvious pain points. Slow decisions, confusion over roles, decisions that keep getting revisited. These are easy to identify and tempting to fix with structure.

Just below the surface: Patterns emerge. Teams repeat the same habits, waiting for clarity, defaulting to escalation, avoiding ownership. Over time, these behaviours create a culture of disempowerment.

Further down: You hit systems and frameworks. This is where many organizations focus their attention, reworking decision models, reshuffling governance. Still, it’s not enough.

At the base: The deepest layer, the narrative level. This is where the real drivers live. Beliefs, mindsets, and stories people carry about what’s safe, what’s possible, and who decides. Without reshaping this layer, no amount of process change will stick.

As Einstein supposedly said, “You can’t solve problems with the same thinking that created them.” Yet, that’s exactly what many organizations try to do. They throw process at problems rooted in mindset and culture.

Culture, not checklists

Truly agile decision-making doesn’t come from better escalation matrices. It comes from a shift in how people think, act, and relate. It’s a cultural transformation. One that empowers teams to make fast, smart calls without defaulting to hierarchy or hesitation. So how can you begin to create the shift?

1. Create psychological safety

Agile teams need more than permission, they need safety. When people are afraid of being wrong, they default to silence, delay, or deference. Leaders must actively reduce fear and protectiveness. That means fostering a space where it’s safe to speak up, safe to question, and safe to make (and learn from) mistakes. Read more about psychological safety in our blog from earlier this year.

2. Jump in, don’t hover

You can’t drive agile decision-making from the sidelines. Leaders must “jump in” with clarity and intention. This means being decisive about outcomes and encouraging action over analysis paralysis. Waiting for the perfect moment (or the perfect plan) only delays momentum.

3. Lean into productive tension

Agile decision-making is not chaos. It’s discipline within dynamic environments. That means holding opposing forces (polarities) in balance: psychological safety and radical candour, or spending and saving, for example. The goal isn’t to eliminate these tensions, but to manage it well. We’ve written about how to master these polarities in a recent blog.

4. Be provocative when it matters

Sometimes, real change requires shaking the system. Leaders may need to take a bold stance: “This isn’t working. We’re not moving fast enough. We have to do something different.” Cultural transformation starts with the courage to say the uncomfortable thing, and back it up with action.

The strategic upside

When organizations operate at this narrative level, the payoff is significant. In industries like healthcare or pharma, where thousands of decisions are made daily, cultural agility and removing silos directly affects pipeline speed, product delivery, and ultimately, impact. It’s not just about moving faster. It’s about moving better and aligning pace with purpose. Breaking decision-making silos, then, isn’t just an operational challenge. It’s a strategic lever. One that unlocks innovation, increases ownership, and accelerates progress.

Published 08/07/2025