How To Avoid Being Siloed from Other Business Units

In this short video, Tim gives his take on how legal can avoid being siloed from other business units. He highlights the importance of proactive communication, building relationships, and having a fundamental understanding of the business.

Transcript

Question: How can the legal team avoid being siloed from other business units?

Answer: The most important thing is to be proactive in the way that you communicate. Go and build those relationships with people who are at your same peer level. If you're the VP legal, go and build relationships with the other VPs around the organization above and beyond the, "I need something from you" or, "you need something from me."

Go and get to know them and start to understand what they do. I'm a firm believer that the more lawyers can show that they understand the business, the better. The same goes for finance people. The same goes for HR folks. If you can show that you are actively trying to understand the business or that you have a basic fundamental level of understanding of the business, I think that goes a long way. It helps people think about communication as constructive collective communication and less like a, "You're trying to get in my way" or, "You're trying to keep me from doing something", which happens a lot.