Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Basketball Silos

Despite a wealth of information, sometimes that knowledge remains compartmentalized because of "silos."

What are silos?

Organizational silos represent isolated pockets within an organization where departments or teams operate independently, often to the detriment of seamless communication and collaboration.

Silos in government, especially national defense, contributed to vulnerability to terrorism. 

Why do they exist?

Agencies were reluctant to share information with others. Part of that reticence is known as "turf." That can relate to pride, desire for recognition, or sometimes entrenched policy. 

In basketball, silos result from "me first" mentality. 

What are the consequences of silos? 

Silos create underperformance. An assistant may feel unwilling to share with the head coach. Upperclassmen may not help younger players out of fear of losing playing time or status. 

How do we identify them?

Silos can be hard to detect. We don't know what we don't know. Coaching girls, I found value in having a female assistant who might communicate with players in a different style or relate better. 

How do we resolve the issue? 

Tackle silos head on. They can be persistent and failure to address them can result in system failures. 

Here's a brief summary of how silos hurt basketball teams:

How Silos Hurt Basketball Teams

  1. Poor Communication

    • Guards, wings, and posts stop talking. Missed switches, blown coverages, and wasted possessions pile up.

  2. Fragmented Goals

    • Each group chases its own agenda (e.g., “I got my points” vs. “We got the stop”), instead of the team’s scoreboard. When the scorebook becomes more important than the scoreboard, trouble follows. 

  3. Mistrust Across Roles

    • Shooters don’t believe the pass will come. Defenders think nobody has their back. Trust erodes.

  4. Slow Adaptation

    • Without cross-unit collaboration, in-game adjustments take too long. Opponents exploit gaps.

  5. Duplication of Effort

    • Two players guard the same man while another is left open — wasted energy from lack of coordination.

  6. No Shared Language

    • If the bigs call screens one way and the guards another, breakdowns are inevitable. Teams need a unified lexicon, not "this is how we did it there." 

  7. Stifled Creativity

    • Isolation of roles kills synergy. The best actions — drive-kick-swing, screen-the-screener — require tight interconnection.

  8. Blame Culture

    • Each “silo” points fingers at others: offense blames defense, starters blame bench, upperclassmen blame younger players. 

  9. Inconsistent Standards

    • When groups hold themselves to different expectations (effort, shot selection, discipline), the culture fractures. "The standard is the standard."

  10. Loss of Resilience

  • When adversity hits, silos make it harder to rally together — the team frays instead of uniting. You're lucky if you haven't seen a team fracture. 

Silos are the opposite of teamwork as individuals or cliques keep information to themselves. 

Lagniappe. "Movement kills defenses." So, what resuscitates them? 

Lagniappe 2. General Stanley McChrystal wrote an important book, Team of Teams about US Intelligence in Iraq and how eliminating silos helped improve performance. Successful coaches get players to believe team first. 

📘 Team of Teams — One-Page Cheat Sheet (from ChatGPT Plus)

Core Idea

  • The world is now complex (fast, interconnected, unpredictable).

  • Traditional siloed, hierarchical organizations are too slow and rigid.

  • To adapt, large groups must operate more like small, networked teams: fast, connected, and empowered.

🔑 Principles

  1. From Silos to Network

    • Replace “command of teams” with a team of teams: interconnected, transparent, and trust-based.

  2. Shared Consciousness

    • Make information broadly available (“duty to share” instead of “need to know”).

    • Build a common picture so all teams see the bigger mission, not just their piece.

  3. Empowered Execution

    • Push authority downward.

    • With context + trust, frontline teams can make fast, informed decisions.

  4. Embedding & Lateral Ties

    • Rotate/insert people across teams to build personal trust and break barriers.

  5. Leader as Gardener

    • Leaders set culture, trust, and systems — they nurture instead of micromanaging moves.

  6. Adaptability over Efficiency

    • Optimize for resilience, agility, and fast learning rather than pure efficiency.

⚙️ Practices that Broke Silos

  • Daily open O&I briefings: info shared across all units.

  • Cross-team embedding: people placed in other teams to bridge.

  • Office design for interaction: physical and structural changes to encourage flow.

  • Rewarding system wins, not local wins: incentives aligned to shared mission.

🧭 Application Beyond Military

  • Corporations: break silos between departments (e.g. marketing ↔ engineering).

  • Healthcare: cross-functional care teams instead of isolated specialists.

  • Sports: integrate scouts, analytics, coaches, and players into a shared view.

⚠️ Watchouts

  • Too much decentralization risks chaos.

  • Entrenched culture and incentives resist change.

  • Some industries require standardization and compliance.


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