Leading for Information Flow

Simple Practices That Break Down Barriers

Leadership isn’t just about making decisions — it’s also about ensuring people have the information they need to enact the mission. Yet many leaders unintentionally create or maintain information silos through their everyday behaviors and practices.

The good news? Small changes in leadership behavior can dramatically improve information flow throughout an organization. I’ve found that leaders who excel at breaking down information silos consistently practice several straightforward behaviors.

1. Make Information Access the Default

Many organizations operate on a “need to know” basis, where information is shared only with those explicitly identified as requiring it. This approach inevitably creates knowledge gaps as it’s impossible to predict everyone who might benefit from specific information.

Practical Leadership Behavior:

• Ask: “Who else should see this?” at the end of every meeting or key decision
• Create accessible repositories for non-sensitive information
• Implement regular cross-team updates on projects and initiatives

A healthcare leader instituted a simple rule: unless information contained protected patient data or was explicitly confidential, it should be accessible by default. This single change transformed their organization’s information flow within months.

2. Model Vulnerability and Learning

When leaders present themselves as all-knowing, they create cultures where asking questions is seen as weakness and knowledge is seen as fixed. By contrast, leaders who openly acknowledge knowledge gaps and model curiosity create environments where information flows freely and knowledge can be built upon.

Practical Leadership Behavior:

• Begin meetings by asking what you don’t know but should
• Publicly recognize when you’ve learned something new from team members
• Share your own learning process, not just your conclusions

One technology executive began each leadership team meeting with the question: “What important information do I not have that would help me make better decisions?” This simple practice surfaced critical insights that had previously remained hidden within departmental silos.

3. Reward Knowledge Sharing, Not Hoarding

In many organizations, power derives from exclusive access to information. This creates perverse incentives to hoard rather than share knowledge. Effective leaders actively dismantle these dynamics.

Practical Leadership Behavior:

• Include knowledge-sharing metrics in performance evaluations
• Recognize and celebrate examples of effective information exchange
• Address information hoarding directly when it occurs

An engineering firm revised their promotion criteria to explicitly include examples of how candidates had shared knowledge to improve outcomes across teams. The result was a noticeable shift in behavior as ambitious engineers recognized that their career progression depended not just on technical excellence but on expanding their impact through knowledge sharing.

4. Create Connection Points Between Silos

Physical and organizational separation naturally creates information barriers. Leaders can intentionally create connection points that bridge these divides.

Practical Leadership Behavior:

• Institute cross-functional projects around key business challenges
• Implement “liaison” roles between frequently disconnected teams
• Design physical spaces (or virtual equivalents) that encourage spontaneous interaction

A manufacturing company created a weekly “cross-pollination” lunch where each department briefly shared recent lessons or insights that might benefit others. This lightweight practice created valuable connections without adding bureaucratic burden.

5. Focus on the “Why” Behind Decisions

When leaders communicate only decisions without underlying reasoning, they limit the organization’s ability to learn and adapt. Sharing the “why” creates context that enables better local decision-making.

Practical Leadership Behavior:

• Explicitly communicate reasoning along with decisions
• Share the alternatives considered and why they were rejected
• Connect decisions to larger organizational strategies and goals

After a major strategic shift, one CEO created a “decision tree” document that showed how various options had been evaluated against key criteria. This transparency not only increased buy-in but enabled teams throughout the organization to make aligned decisions without constant escalation.

6. Audit Information Flow Regularly

Information barriers evolve and emerge over time. Effective leaders regularly assess how information flows — or doesn’t — throughout their organization.

Practical Leadership Behavior:

• Ask team members: “What information do you need but struggle to access?”
• Track how long it takes for important information to reach all relevant parties
• Look for patterns in where miscommunications or knowledge gaps occur

A financial services organization conducted quarterly “information flow audits” where they tracked specific pieces of critical information to see how quickly they reached all relevant stakeholders. These simple audits revealed patterns of information blockage that could then be systematically addressed.

Start Small: One Meeting, One Decision, One Team

Creating an organization where information flows freely doesn’t require massive transformation initiatives. It starts with small, intentional changes in everyday leadership behaviors.

Consider starting with one of these approaches:

• Modify your next team meeting to explicitly include knowledge-sharing components
• After your next major decision, take extra time to communicate the reasoning behind it
• Identify one critical boundary between teams and create a simple connection point

What small leadership behavior could you change tomorrow to improve information flow in your organization?