Taking up the cry against organizational silos can bring both empathy and cringing. Of course, silos are awful and keep us from doing our best work, but when you’re in the middle of a silo – and maybe that silo is inside ANOTHER silo – well, what’s a website manager to do? Based on her career among higher education’s ivory-tower silos, Amanda Costello brings together lessons from architecture and the Midwestern landscape to examine not only how to understand our silos, but to teach them a thing or two as well.

1. Amanda Costello
University of Minnesota
College of Education and Human Development
@amandaesque
Working in the Idea Factory
how silos learn

2. Hello
My name is
Amanda

4. I make sure the
content on our
site is useful
for the people
who need it.
Elevator Pitch:

5. Content Strategy model
College
Dept.

12. silos!
You betcha.

13. spoiler alert:
You can’t report to
yourself

17. bro, do
midwest?
you even

18. Minneapolis:
Mill
City

22. how buildings learnby Stewart Brand

23. … not only to remain
sturdy with age
appropriate to its users
but to remain
as they themselves evolve.
-Stewart Brand

29. Humans form groups

30. protection from crap

31. us vs. them

32. Unwilling to share

33. wreck Efficiency

34. “I sure hope all of my
hard work is being
secretly duplicated
elsewhere!”
- No One, Ever

35. Reduce Morale

36. higher ed

37. idea factory

38. myth of the lone genius

39. myth of the lone genius

40. 20% thinkers

41. 20 - 40% thinkers

42. higher education
motivation

43. 1. resource scarcity

44. not enough space

45. not enough time

46. not enough people

47. not enough money

48. Athletics!

49. 1. resource scarcity
2. Jealousy

50. they have something
I want

51. they have something
I want
I deserve

52. The politics
Sayre’s Law:
because the stakes
are so vicious
are so Low

53. silos dipped in
crazy sauce

54. image: K.C. Green, Gunshow #648

55. good news
everyone!

56. The Ivory Tower
photo by Michael G White

57. … not only to remain
sturdy with age
appropriate to its users
but to remain
as they themselves evolve.
-Stewart Brand

58. Site
Structure
Skin
Services
Space Plan
Stuff

59. Site (functionally eternal)
Structure (30 - 300 years)
Skin (20 years)
Services (7 - 15 years)
Space Plan (3 - 30 years)
Stuff (days/months)

61. Working horizontally

62. who else?

63. chronicle.com/interactives/peers-network

64. Higher Ed Slam Book

66. chronicle.com/interactives/peers-network

67. 1. resource scarcity
2. Jealousy

71. build strong bridges

72. Working vertically

73. My Boss
Chief
of Staff
Chief
of Staff
other

74. My Boss
Chief
of Staff
Chief
of Staff
other

75. Good: Therapy Session

76. bad: Fear

77. Eric Qualman, “Social Media Revolution 2015”

78. From Flickr User futureatlas.com

79. beloit mindset list
Class of 2019 mostly born in 1997

80. Never licked a stamp

81. Assume wifi is an
entitlement

82. Have no first-hand experience
with the charismatic celebrity of
princess diana

84. do the work.
Give context.
be better.

85. You are not
literally trapped
metal death tube
in a

86. protection from crap

87. vomitoxin

88. Keep toxic in its silo

89. Change can happen

90. Site (functionally eternal)
Structure (30 - 300 years)
Skin (20 years)
Services (7 - 15 years)
Space Plan (3 - 30 years)
Stuff (days/months)

92. invocation for beginnings
Ze Frank

93. My pencils are
even the dull ones
sharp enough,
will make
a mark.
Ze Frank

94. life isn’t just
of waiting for
a sequence
done.
Ze Frank
things to be

95. Start small…

96. but Start.

97. Let’s be in touch
amandac@umn.edu
@amandaesque
Thank you!
I can drink lattes forever.