'Divisional silos' have been associated with inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and hindered innovation. Within the multifaceted Macquarie Group, spanning from banking, financial advisory, asset management, and other key sectors, such silos can inadvertently obstruct the free flow of information and ideas. We aim to provide cultural innovations in communication among Macquarie Group’s specialist functional risk divisions to improve a seamless flow of information to foster resilience, efficiency and cohesion.
Engaging in a Q&A session with Macquarie Group allowed us to gain a better understanding into the operations of the risk division and helped uncover the underlying root causes of existing communication gaps. Despite challenges in finding suitable interviewees, we conducted four interviews with subject matter experts to delve into industry trends and assess the advantages and disadvantages of silos. Because if silos hinder innovation, why do the they still persist?
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Using affinity mapping, we identified emerging themes and concluded four key findings from our semi-structured interviews.
Among our literature review and research, the key challenges our team found included inefficiency in communication between the risk management departments, shortcomings in documentation, and lack of data transparency.
Through Macquarie Groups' feedback received during our mid-session presentation, it was deemed as undesirable to implement a unified communication tool at a risk management level. Additionally, Macquarie Group already has an existing corporate data hub aimed at enhancing data transparency. Consequently, we concluded that investing in innovative communication culture initiatives would be more effective in bridging the specialist functional divisions compared to investing in technological initiatives such as adopting Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and a centralised data platform.
We pivoted and decided implementing cultural strategic initiatives with well-defined communication and collaboration procedures and networks, supported by technological infrastructure, would enhance the facilitation of effective cross-departmental communication. Through this, we reframed our problem with the 5W method and developed the following 'How Might We' question.
"How might Macquarie Group optimise communication between specialist functional risk divisions?"
In developing our cultural solution, we initiated the process with a brainstorming session, drawing inspiration from 3 proven methodologies identified during our case study research.
During ideation, I jot down ideas to address the siloed framework that impedes efficient and streamlined communication across divisional silos, hinders effective problem solving, innovation, and informed decision making. How can we enhance communication and collaboration efforts among RMG divisional silos to promote innovation, thereby optimises work efficiencies and project turnover rate. To facilitate key decisions moving forward, we narrowed down our ideas through a decision matrix and SWOT analysis prior to user testing.
In order to validate and ensure the feasibility of our design concept, we conducted user testing with peers. Our approach involved utilizing storyboards and scenario-based enactments as prototypes. Through this process, we found three key insights.
The implementation of 'Post Me Up' and 'Out of the Box' includes the following features and flow. Post Me Up encourages casual discussion through a tangible Post-it wall activity. Following it, Out of the Box promotes cross-functional collaboration through an Innovation Hub.
This design project was my first experience working in a larger team of five to provide a solution for an organisation, which required a comprehensive grasp of Macquarie's strategic objectives and needs through extensive high-level research. While defining the problem space, understanding the operational dynamics within Macquarie's risk division, its interplay with various business units, and team dynamics within RMG, alongside their existing communication modalities, posed significant challenges.
This affirmed to me that design is indeed not a linear process. As a team we intiially did a lot of research into case studies and opportunities on how technology has been implemented to bridge the communication gap. However, during our mid-session presentation to Macquarie to present our findings, we found how it was not desirable for the organisation. Therefore, to address the feedback we had to pivot from an initial technological solution to a cultural solution and redo more research on cultural innovation in the communication landscape. Consequently, this hindered our ideation process to be later than we anticipated. If we had more time, I would have definitely conducted more user testing with Macquarie's risk division to ensure the user flow of our cultural innovation is suitable with their current workflow.
