HBR: cross‑silo work aids scaling

Harvard Business Review’s March–April 2026 issue put a simple management problem at the center of scaling: good ideas often stall when teams cannot work across internal boundaries. (hbr.org) In that issue, Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards, and Jason Wild wrote that many innovations fail “not because of flawed ideas” but because organizations struggle to collaborate across groups and partner organizations. The article says no single team now has all the capabilities, tools, or authority needed to move an idea from prototype to scale. (hbr.org) Harvard Business Review published that article in its March–April 2026 magazine, which went on sale March 1, 2026, and listed it alongside pieces on generative artificial intelligence, digital product models, and strategic pivots. Harvard Business Review also grouped it under its cross-functional management coverage. (store.hbr.org) (hbr.org) A second Harvard Business Review article, published April 3, 2026, argued that silos are not always the enemy. Oguz A. Acar and Aybars Tuncdogan wrote that innovation results depend on two variables: how tightly people’s work depends on one another and whether they share the same goals. (hbr.org) That article split organizations into three patterns. Convergence-based work needs strong communication and leadership to combine different expertise, divergence-based work needs leaders to prevent overload and absorb outside knowledge, and attention-based work can lose originality if people have too much visibility into one another’s ideas. (hbr.org) The through line is narrower than “tear down every silo.” Harvard Business Review’s April article said the better approach is to match structure, coordination, and incentives to the problem being solved, because blanket rules to maximize collaboration can help in one setting and constrain work in another. (hbr.org) That argument builds on earlier Harvard Business Review writing. A January 11, 2024 article by Jeff Rosenthal and Molly Rosen said silos still bog down execution, hamper innovation, and slow decision-making, and that senior leaders have to lead across the organization rather than only inside their own functions. (hbr.org) An earlier May–June 2019 magazine article made a similar point from the employee side. Amy C. Edmondson, Sujin Jang, and Tiziana Casciaro wrote that workers default to vertical relationships, and they proposed four habits for cross-silo leadership: cultural brokers, open-ended questions, perspective-taking, and wider networks. (hbr.org) Taken together, Harvard Business Review’s recent coverage treats scaling less as a product problem than as an organizational one. The magazine’s latest message is that companies need people who can connect functions, partners, and expertise before a promising idea can spread. (hbr.org 1) (hbr.org 2)