Somewhere along the way, collaboration became its own full-time job. Back-to-back meetings, 47 Slack channels and a growing sense that decisions are happening somewhere. Everyone’s busy, everyone’s “collaborating,” but somehow, things still aren’t moving forward.

That’s the thing about silos: They rarely announce themselves. They slip in quietly as companies grow, teams get bigger and processes get heavier.

In December 2023, for example, Tesla had grown to more than 140,000 employees — nearly triple its size from just five years earlier. That kind of scale creates new complexity, and if culture doesn’t evolve with it, coordination suffers. Just a few months later in April 2024, Tesla recalled nearly 3,900 Cybertrucks due to an unapproved assembly change involving the accelerator pedal.

At first glance, it looked like a simple engineering oversight. But beneath it was a broader cultural signal: Critical decisions were being made in isolation, bypassing checks that would have caught the issue. It wasn’t just a flaw in the system; it was a breakdown in cross-functional communication, a sign that the company’s ways of working hadn’t kept pace with its growth.

We talk about silos like they’re a structural issue, but when communication breaks down and critical decisions bypass the right checks, that’s a cultural problem. Culture acts as the invisible force that either enables strategy to take hold or causes it to unravel. The mindsets, habits and unspoken norms that guide how people work can quietly accelerate progress or derail it.

Even in high-performing organizations, silos can take root. On the surface, teams seem aligned. But underneath, miscommunication, eroded trust and clashing processes expose a culture that hasn’t evolved with the strategy. The result? A facade of productivity where teams are busy but misaligned.

If you want to bridge your organizational silos, here’s how to read the cultural signals and reset the habits holding you back.

Related: Demolish Your Company’s Silos to Unlock Organizational Efficiency – Here’s How.

1. Use moments of change to reassess culture

According to Deloitte, 75% of global organizations operate in a matrix. In these environments, authority is shared and people take their cues from what leaders do, not just what they say. In the moments that matter — how priorities are set, how feedback is delivered, how conflict is handled — what leaders choose to do either reinforces culture or erodes it. This is especially true during moments of change. When teams are navigating a merger, reorg or shift in strategy, there’s a temptation to double down on structure. But the smarter move is a cultural one.

In a recent engagement, my team supported two communications firms merging to form a stronger, unified business. Like many leaders in that situation, they faced a choice: default to one company’s legacy culture, or use the moment to shape something new. They chose the latter.

Rather than preserving old ways of working, they asked: “What culture will best support the strategy we’re building together?” That one question led to real alignment. By co-defining shared norms and addressing siloed habits — such as relying on personal networks for decision-making — they laid the groundwork for a culture that could successfully carry the business forward.

We saw this play out at a global cruise company as well. What began as a leadership development program to support the rollout of new leadership behaviors became a broader cultural reset. Leaders didn’t just learn new skills; they practiced new behaviors: modeling curiosity in meetings, giving feedback that built trust and surfacing tensions without blame. Those moments, repeated over time, became the building blocks of a culture that supported real collaboration, not performative alignment.

You’ve likely seen moments like this in your own organization, when growth or disruption reveals the need for more than a structural fix. These are inflection points. And when you use them to revisit how people work together — not just where — you turn culture into a strategic advantage.

2. Aim for purposeful collaboration, not more meetings

When collaboration stalls, the instinct is often to add more: more meetings, more shared docs, more people in the room. But these fixes often mask the real issue.

Instead of breaking down silos, they create new ones under the surface. Here’s how it happens:

• Everyone is involved, but no one is accountable. Without clear roles or decision rights, people default to their own teams or networks.

• Work becomes fragmented. Different groups contribute in parallel, but without shared context or ownership, efforts duplicate or stall.

• Momentum slows. Meetings feel collaborative, but decisions drag, execution slips and frustration builds between functions.

It looks like cross-functional teamwork, but it functions like a silo.

Deloitte encountered this challenge when launching Pixel, its open innovation platform. Initially met with internal resistance, Pixel didn’t succeed because of new structures. It succeeded because of cultural alignment. Leadership prioritized trust-building, clarified participation roles and aligned incentives to encourage adoption. By engaging early internal champions and focusing on shared outcomes, Deloitte fostered collaboration that was rooted in shared purpose rather than forced process.

This approach highlights a key truth: Collaboration should feel purposeful, not performative. Teams don’t just need more connection. They need clearer alignment on who decides what, how success is measured and when input is truly needed.

Related: Change Is a Team Sport — So Every Player Needs to Own It. Here’s How to Get Everyone Involved.

3. Build trust through intentional routines

In fast-moving, high-pressure environments, rituals often get cut in the name of efficiency. But without them, something more costly slips away: trust.

Siloed work doesn’t always come from a lack of collaboration — it often comes from a lack of connection. When people don’t see or celebrate progress together and when priorities shift without shared context, trust quietly erodes. That’s where intentional routines come in.

At one global entertainment company, urgency was the default. Leaders jumped from one launch to the next, skipping reflection and recognition. While productive on the surface, it left teams feeling unseen and disconnected. By introducing small but consistent rituals, such as cross-functional retrospectives, milestone celebrations and weekly shoutouts for collaborative wins, leaders began to rebuild what was missing: a shared sense of progress, belonging and momentum. These routines didn’t just boost morale. They reset the team’s cultural rhythm.

Trust is built in the rhythms of daily work: who’s recognized, who’s included and how people show up when things get hard. In distributed or hybrid environments, where work naturally splinters, these routines become the glue. They’re how culture is built and how siloes start to come undone.

4. Treat culture as a living system (and your strategy’s strongest ally)

Culture doesn’t shift once — it evolves constantly. And organizations that track those shifts intentionally outperform those that don’t. Microsoft offers a compelling example. Instead of relying solely on engagement surveys, the company measures “thriving,” a nuanced, human-centric signal of where energy is building or slipping. It’s a reminder that staying aligned with your culture isn’t about sweeping overhauls. It’s about small, deliberate adjustments that keep momentum moving in the right direction.

Silos, after all, aren’t merely structural. They’re cultural. They take root when leaders default to outdated habits, when collaboration is performative and when trust is too fragile to support shared ownership. They persist in rooms where everyone has a voice, but no one feels accountable.

Related: A Good Work Culture Doesn’t Come From Free Pizza — 10 Lessons I Learned From Building an Unbreakable Culture

Reinvigorating culture doesn’t mean starting over. It means leading differently. It means recognizing that when collaboration stalls or strategy slips, silos aren’t the root cause but the signal. By resetting how people work together, especially in moments of change, leaders turn culture into a living, strategic advantage. That’s how progress sticks and silos don’t.

The result? Faster decisions. Deeper engagement. A culture that evolves as fast as your business does — and one where silos don’t stand a chance.

This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Kelly Rocklein, an Oregon-based entrepreneur who dropped out of college to pursue a career in user-generated content (UGC). Rocklein, 30, broke six figures with her UGC side hustle in 2022, at one point earning six figures on top of $160,000 in her full-time corporate role. She’s since transitioned into creative strategy consulting to focus on building her business, UGC Pro. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.

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I grew up in a single-parent household, so it was my mom raising me, my brother and my sister. My dad basically left us in financial ruin just because of how the divorce played out. I was a free lunch kid going into high school. I knew that a four-year state college was not on the table because I couldn’t afford it, and I didn’t want to take out student loans.

So, in 2013, going into my senior year when all of my friends were excited about where they were going to school, I was trying to get creative and figure out an alternate path. I worked three jobs my senior year to afford my first semester of community college; I enrolled, but very soon it dawned on me that I was just following societal norms and working so hard for something that wasn’t my passion.

I wanted to get into content creation. Instagram was still very new. Stories and reels didn’t exist. When I thought about what I wanted to do, I didn’t have a term for it, but it was user-generated content (UGC) — I wanted to work with brands on Instagram. I wanted to do a barter deal, which is what I did, where I would say, “Hey, if you send me this product that I want but don’t want to pay for, I can make a really cool video about it, and then you could post it to your socials.” I did that for a long time while working as a part-time tour guide at Disney when I lived in Orlando.

Related: Couple’s Side Hustle Surpassed $1,000 a Day Fast — With ChatGPT’s Help

It wasn’t until 2018, when I worked at a digital marketing agency, that I realized I’d been creating UGC for these brands.

I worked really hard to build a portfolio between 2014 and 2015. In those early days, I charged about $25 an hour for my work. I was still living at home. I would stay up all night after my day job. Also, when I decided to start building my portfolio, I didn’t tell my mom that I wasn’t enrolling in community college for the second semester. I told myself I’d give it one year to make content creation work.

About eight months in, I got my first contract with Proctor Gallagher Institute. Bob Proctor from The Secret was my first client. He has since passed away, but it was an incredible first contract, and at the time, paid about $30,000 for that quarter of that year. That was the most money I’d ever seen in my entire life.

That afforded me the luxury of being able to move to the West Coast. I wanted to move to Los Angeles to expedite my learning curve, the real-life experience. I knew that if I didn’t have a degree to point to, I had to have a portfolio jam-packed with incredible work. In LA, I fell into the influencer world. I was doing creative directing, video editing. Essentially, I was doing creative strategy — focused on how to get people to stop scrolling and watch a video. It was kind of like the Wild West because many of those influencers weren’t operating with an HR helmet on.

Related: How I Used Side Hustles to Pay Off $40,000 Debt in 1 Year

By fall of 2018, I was ready to leave that world and go into corporate. I wanted work-life balance to an extent, and to make a salary I could count on with health benefits. Because of the real-life experience that I collected between 2014 and 2018, I got my first agency job at MuteSix. I didn’t realize how much of an opportunity it really was, but similar to how people in tech will say they’re ex-Twitter or ex-Meta, in the marketing space, to say you’re ex-MuteSix carries a lot of weight.

Even though I had mostly organic social experience up until this point, thankfully they saw what I was capable of and realized my skills translated to direct-response marketing. Then I learned that the content I was editing for these brands is UGC, and I’d been doing it for more than four years. I also continued doing one-off UGC products as a side hustle while working my full-time corporate role.

Related: He Spent $36 to Start a Side Hustle. Now the Business Earns 6 Figures a Year — With Just 1-2 Hours of Work a Day: ‘Freedom.

I finally felt like I was getting more financially stable. I no longer had to rely on my credit card just to get by. I had the luxury of being able to pay off my debts and start building wealth. I earned $70,000 at that full-time corporate job and took on UGC projects as they came, but it wasn’t until about 2020 that the side hustle became a consistent opportunity with the potential to make real money — and basically double my salary.

After MuteSix, I worked in a senior producer role at a women’s clothing brand, but a week before the pandemic hit, I resigned from the position because it wasn’t a good fit. Without a corporate income stream, I started to build up my UGC consulting services. By fall of 2021, I’d taken another full-time creative strategy job, but all along I’d been building my UGC side hustle business and continued to do so even when I started work as creative director of another brand in 2023. At that point, I was making $160,000. I’d even moved out of LA, but the company continued to pay my competitive salary. I’d also officially hit over $100,000 in annual revenue with my UGC side hustle.

Related: From Side Gig to 6-Figure Success — How I Built a Thriving Home-Based Business as a Busy Family Man

So I had this six-figure side business that I worked on for 10-15 hours a week. It was steady work with three main clients and occasional one-off projects. Once I projected I’d do more than $300,000 that year, it made sense to go into work for myself. The more money I could make for my clients, the more leverage I’d have to charge more. I could choose UGC projects willing to pay higher rates. With just two or three contracts, I could make a full-time creative director’s salary working part-time.

That decision ended up being the best one I’ve ever made: I’ve never felt more financially secure than when I’ve been working for myself.

I’m currently solely focused on one contract. I have never before wanted to focus on just one brand, but at this point, it’s such an incredible opportunity — the monthly take-home is up to $20,000 a month. My hourly rate is $175, but if clients commit to 10 hours per week, it drops to $150. I can focus on this creative strategy client, take on my UGC projects that I want to work on and still have the mental capacity and energy to be able to build UGC Pro.

UGC was never a talking point on social media until the summer of 2022, when everyone and their mom was talking about it on TikTok‘s For You page. It got to a point where people were talking about it in a way that I was like, Why does it sound like an MLM? This is weird, guys. It’s a service like graphic design and video editing are services. You don’t need to be an influencer. You just need to be good at content creation. UGC Pro was born when UGC went mainstream on TikTok. It was because of all the misinformation floating around that I made the account to reset expectations and help train the next wave of creators and strategists for performance marketing. So this business popped up organically as a creator resource.

Even though there are more UGC creators than there have ever been before, it’s still an incredible opportunity: More direct-to-consumer brands are popping up every single day.

Related: I Made Over $400,000 From a Side Hustle on Top of My 6-Figure Salary Last Year. I Love Diversified Income — and This Game-Changing Money-Saver.

And the beauty of UGC is you don’t need to be a 20-something pretty blonde girl to be successful. I have students who are Gen X creators who have built six-figure businesses and have now transitioned to TikTok shop, and they’ll come to me and say, “Kelly, I’m leveraging the best practices that you taught me for TikTok shop” — and these creators are in the top 1% of TikTok shop. They’re now making up to six figures a month.

When I decided to drop out of college in 2014, it felt like such uncharted territory. With the exception of my mom, everyone asked me what I was going to do and thought that without a degree, I wouldn’t make it. Even a family friend who was a serial entrepreneur asked me what my Plan B was. Fast forward to today, and taking alternative paths that don’t involve college is more widely accepted.

If you’re someone interested in taking a different route, it’s so important to get as much real-life experience as possible. Focus on strengthening your skill sets and building a portfolio that showcases your capabilities. It can all feel overwhelming; my journey was not easy by any means. There were a lot of roadblocks, times in my career when I didn’t know why I continued to pursue it. But, ultimately, if you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you’ll look up one day and be like, How did I get here? I don’t know, but I’m really grateful I never gave up.

This article is part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.

Hiring is war. Every decision either strengthens your army or weakens it. The wrong hire doesn’t just drain resources — it poisons culture, slows execution and sets your company back months, sometimes years. One toxic or underperforming employee can undo the progress of five great ones. But the right hire? They don’t just add value — they multiply it. The right person amplifies everything you’ve built, brings clarity where there was confusion and elevates the performance of everyone around them.

Most CEOs and founders think they’re good at spotting talent. They trust their gut. They like to believe they can see through resumes and interview polish. But too often, that confidence ends in regret — hours lost, money burned and teams demoralized. Ask any founder, and they’ll have a story about “the one they gave a chance” who turned into a six-month distraction. The truth is, mistakes in hiring are rarely surprises. Red flags almost always show up early. The problem? Most leaders are too rushed, too optimistic or too emotionally invested to notice.

Related: You’re in Trouble if You Ignore These 5 Applicant Red Flags

And here’s the flip side: The best green flags are just as obvious. The candidates who are going to become culture-drivers, problem-solvers, and long-term assets usually show their hand in the first conversations. But you have to know what signals to look for — and just as importantly, which signals to ignore. That’s where experience makes the difference.

Enter Shayna Dekel — Head of HR, entrepreneur and author of Things Your Parents Should Have Taught You: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting the Job. She’s seen it all from both sides of the table: the star hires who transform a business and the mis-hires who quietly (or loudly) corrode it from within. She’s interviewed thousands of candidates, advised countless founders and built teams that thrive. Her perspective bridges the gap between what job seekers think they’re showing and what founders actually need to see.

What follows isn’t theory or vague advice; it’s a practical cheat sheet for founders, CEOs and leaders who can’t afford to get hiring wrong. Because when the stakes are this high, you don’t need another “hiring philosophy.” You need battle-tested tools that keep you from making the mistakes that every other founder has already regretted.

The 5 red flags (never hires)

1. Disrespecting “non-decision makers”

If a candidate treats your receptionist, HR coordinator or junior staff as “less important,” cut them loose. How they treat people they don’t think matter is how they’ll treat your clients.

2. No research, no effort

Showing up clueless about your company screams laziness. If they didn’t care enough to Google you, why would they care enough to grind for you?

3. Blame-heavy language

Listen carefully. If every career story they tell is about a “toxic boss,” “bad culture” or “stupid management,” guess what? You’re next on that list.

4. Entitlement without proof

Asking about title, pay bumps or remote perks before proving value is an instant signal they’re in it for themselves, not the mission.

5. Reschedule rage

Interviews move around — it’s the reality of executive calendars. If a candidate throws a fit over it, imagine their reaction to an actual startup fire drill. Pass.

Related: How Employers Can Assess Job Applicants — and Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes

The 5 green flags (hire immediately)

1. Prepared like an owner

They know your product, your competitors and even your recent press. That shows not just interest — it shows initiative.

2. Referrals and networks

Top talent gets referred. If one of your trusted people vouches for them, it means they’ve already been pre-screened for reliability.

3. Authentic curiosity

They don’t just answer your questions; they ask insightful ones back. Candidates who want to understand your business usually want to grow with your business.

4. Polished but real

They overdress a little, they show up early and they still manage to be authentic. That balance of respect and realness is rare — and worth grabbing.

5. Storytelling that sticks

When their resume lines up with a compelling, human narrative — including relevant hobbies or passion projects — you remember them. And people you remember are people you hire.

The difference between a great hire and a disaster isn’t subtle; it’s glaring. Red flags scream, green flags shine. The leaders who pay attention, who trust the signals instead of their wishful thinking, are the ones who win. Bad hires almost always come with warnings; the best ones leave no doubt. Hiring is less about luck and more about discipline — knowing when to walk away and when to double down on someone who clearly raises the bar.

Related: How to Hire Peak Performers with These 5 Proven Strategies

For Elisa Marshall, co-founder of Maman cafés, entrepreneurship started in childhood—helping her parents sell antiques on eBay at 13 and running lemonade stands. Torn between multiple passions, it wasn’t until she moved to New York City that a longing for home sparked the idea for Maman, a coffee shop rooted in nostalgia but built for the bustle of the city.

Marshall designed a space that broke the mold of “industrial chic” New York City cafés. Wanting to create a welcoming space that felt like home, she named the business Maman (“mother” in French) and drew from her skills in fashion, food and interior design to transform the typical café experience.

Related: This Venezuelan Entrepreneur Craved His Favorite Comfort Food – So He Started a Business Selling It

“A lot of people in New York City don’t have dining room tables for four, let alone [the space to host] a big group of people. Sometimes they don’t even have kitchens in their apartments. So we really wanted to create that extension, that home-away-from-home vibe,” Marshall says.

From the very beginning, attention to detail set Maman apart from its competitors. Despite the upfront cost, Marshall insisted every cup, plate and chair be different — painstaking for her suppliers but crucial for the signature “lived-in” look she was going for.

Scaling that highly personalized feeling was a challenge as Maman grew. Marshall had to decide what to standardize and what to keep personal when she opened new locations. Chairs and tables became uniform, but Marshall still scours antique fairs and garage sales to maintain Maman’s iconic, mismatched china.

Related: They Built Their First Restaurant With Their ‘Bare Hands.’ Now They Have 380 Locations.

This hand-crafted ambiance extends to Maman’s digital presence. Every touchpoint, whether email, Instagram or Uber Eats packaging, reflects the brand’s aesthetic.

“Everything from fonts to tone of voice to color palettes that we use [contributes to brand consistency],” she says. “Anyone can send out a basic email, but we have an incredible graphic design team and marketing team that appreciate and understand finding the beauty and telling our brand story throughout.”

Another challenge is meeting customer demand while still innovating and keeping the menu fresh. About 60% of Maman’s offerings are core classics that regulars expect, but there’s always room for creativity, trends and seasonality. This willingness to experiment keeps both the team and customers engaged.

“No one wants to have a hot butternut squash soup in August in Miami,” Marshall says. “So making sure that what we offer is relevant to the location and season [is important]. [There are also] a lot of opportunities to work with local farms [and] get much better produce when you’re working with seasonal ingredients.”

Related: He Grew His Small Business to a $25 Million Operation By Following These 5 Principles

In terms of advertising, Marshall knows there’s nothing better than word of mouth. When Maman’s honeycomb tahini latte became a viral sensation, it wasn’t a paid marketing blitz that started the craze but an ecstatic fan posting about it online.

“We believe in very organic advertising, and we don’t do any paid influencer advertising,” Marshall shares, emphasizing that any customer can be a brand ambassador.

“Our moms who come in, who will talk to the other moms and carry their Maman cup to school pick-up — those are our true influencers. Those are the ones who end up driving the traffic and planning the after-school dates and the after-drop-off coffee meetups with the girlfriends.”

Maman also enhances its customer experience through in-person and online feedback. From reading every Yelp review to empowering her team to gather and track both customer and employee input, Marshall keeps a keen eye on areas for improvement.

“Cultivating a positive environment about reviews is very important,” Marshall says. “On the flip side, I think it’s equally as important to receive feedback and reviews from our employees. Because they’re the ones who are front-of-house. They’re the ones who know the most, and we have them send reports weekly to us as a store.”

For example, when Marshall heard from a busboy that customers weren’t eating the mixed greens that came with sandwiches, she removed them to prevent food waste, reducing prices as a result. Small changes like this can not only save the company money but also reduce environmental impact and increase customer satisfaction.

With cookies that made Oprah’s favorites list and a brand that treats each guest like family, it’s clear Marshall’s “home away from home” is a movement more than a menu.

Related: These Brothers Turned a 2-Man Operation Into One of the Most Trusted Companies in Their Area. Here’s How.

Key lessons from Marshall’s journey with Maman include:

• Standardize where it matters; personalize where it counts. Not every detail can scale, but the ones that define your brand should never be compromised.
• Treat reviews and feedback as gifts. Not every comment demands change, but every pattern can point to improvement.
• Community is your best marketing. Build a space that people want to talk about, photograph, and share to build word of mouth. Influencer marketing can be powerful, but any customer can be a brand ambassador.

Editorial contributions by Kristi Lindahl and Emily Moon

This article is part of our ongoing America’s Favorite Mom & Pop Shops® series highlighting family-owned and operated businesses.

For Elisa Marshall, co-founder of Maman cafés, entrepreneurship started in childhood—helping her parents sell antiques on eBay at 13 and running lemonade stands. Torn between multiple passions, it wasn’t until she moved to New York City that a longing for home sparked the idea for Maman, a coffee shop rooted in nostalgia but built for the bustle of the city.

Marshall designed a space that broke the mold of “industrial chic” New York City cafés. Wanting to create a welcoming space that felt like home, she named the business Maman (“mother” in French) and drew from her skills in fashion, food and interior design to transform the typical café experience.

Related: This Venezuelan Entrepreneur Craved His Favorite Comfort Food – So He Started a Business Selling It