Breaking Down Silos: Using collaboration to increase internal and external communication

The federal agency NOAA was created in 1972 as an amalgamation of several existing government organizations into one agency with an overarching mission focused on oceans and atmosphere. These divisions between formally independent agencies still exist today and overcoming these independent silos was a challenge, but necessary in an ever networked and collaborative world. 

To fully bring all that NOAA has to offer to a region or even more localized area would need internal collaboration and a new way of doing business to the communities that they serve. Communication with audiences is increasingly local and regional and NOAA needed to find a way to reach across its own agency and reach its audience as one agency on the ground and on regional issues for more efficient and effective government.

This 30-minute presentation will highlight the basics of collaboration and what it takes to make it work.  It will briefly cover the idea of origin stories in organizations and what is needed to overcome organizational structure and develop a new way of collaboration across an organization. It will also cover the important core competencies for managing collaboration and how to make internal collaboration work for the agencies and its external audiences.