Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children

by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

Sadly, we see Level 1 in many, though not all, of the nation’s classrooms. Children are increasingly encouraged to sit on their own, not speaking to or working with others, and little to no collaboration is encouraged. Believe it or not, there are adults in every walk of life who are still at Level 1. In 1991, management consultant Geary Rummler is credited with inventing the term silo syndrome.11 Now a hackneyed phrase, it was designed to capture how units within a corporation can develop their own cultures. They can even have difficulty talking to each other—clear Level 1 behavior. Turf guarding (“We do engineering and don’t need your ideas, thank you”) is an outgrowth of silo syndrome. And if you have silo syndrome you are much less likely to innovate; after all, who is thinking big picture? It’s all about your own unit. Would you want to be part of an organization in which walking into another department felt like invading alien territory?