{"id":8807,"date":"2019-05-15T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/?p=8807"},"modified":"2020-01-17T19:55:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T19:55:47","slug":"breaking-down-silos-coffee-chats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/breaking-down-silos-coffee-chats\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Down Silos with Coffee Chats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many organizations face internal communication struggles. In fact, Deloitte Global\u2019s 2019 Industry 4.0 Readiness Report<\/a><\/strong> shows that one-third of the 2,000 C-suite executives surveyed ranked organizational or geographical silos among their top three challenges. Employees often don\u2019t know what roles others play in the organization, what projects others are working on, and whether they can or should share their work with colleagues outside of their departments or immediate teams. As a result, employees tend to operate in insulated environments \u2014 and these silos can have a significant impact on an organization\u2019s culture, as well as its bottom line.<\/p>\n

At the American College of Radiology (ACR), a nonprofit association headquartered in Reston, Va., that empowers members to advance radiological care, we have instituted a simple initiative that is helping to break down silos among the organization\u2019s nearly 500 employees who work across more than 20 departments and four geographic locations, as well as remotely. Known as ACR Coffee Chats, this engagement initiative randomly pairs employees throughout the organization \u2014 from the C-suite to building operations \u2014 to meet in-person or virtually to talk about their work and interests over a free Starbucks coffee or other beverage.<\/p>\n

The ACR started Coffee Chats as a pilot project in 2016, with nearly a quarter of the workforce participating. Following their chats, surveyed participants provided overwhelmingly positive feedback about the experience, saying things like: \u201cIt’s a great opportunity to get to know co-workers who you wouldn’t come across in other settings, learning about other departments and sharing knowledge,\u201d and \u201cI love that we are doing this! Thanks for the opportunity.\u201d Based on this affirmative response, ACR Coffee Chats has become an ongoing initiative that employees have praised both in the organization\u2019s internal Culture of Excellence Survey and in an independent survey that earned the ACR a Great Place to Work\u00ae certification<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Staff-Driven Effort<\/h2>\n

A four-member team from the ACR\u2019s publications department, including ACR Press vice president Becky Haines, conceived the idea for ACR Coffee Chats while participating in the 2016 edition of the School for Change Agents<\/a><\/strong> (known at the time as the School for Health and Care Radicals). The School for Change Agents is an online course sponsored by the United Kingdom\u2019s National Health Service that builds change agency among members of the healthcare sector to make a difference in patient care and beyond. The five-week course is broadcast live and attracts students from around the globe.<\/p>\n

During the 2016 session, School for Change Agents leaders encouraged students to launch a change initiative at their organizations and share results data at the course\u2019s end. As the ACR team considered initiatives it could implement in the relatively short timeframe, it drew inspiration from the School for Change Agent\u2019s Randomized Coffee Trials, which paired students to have coffee and talk with one another through video conferencing. After conducting online research, the ACR team discovered that other organizations had instituted Randomized Coffee Trials with favorable results and determined that it could easily adopt the model to ignite engagement and collaboration within the ACR.<\/p>\n

With Haines\u2019 sponsorship, the team drafted a proposal and took it to the ACR\u2019s Innovation Lab, an idea incubator that the Office of Strategic Planning and Business Excellence (OSPBE) team was running to gather staff ideas for improving all aspects of the ACR. When Haines and her team presented the Coffee Chats concept, the OSPBE group immediately recognized its potential and agreed to help flesh out and implement the pilot. Here\u2019s the approach they developed:<\/p>\n