Breaking down silos isn’t about tearing something down — it’s about showing up across teams with curiosity, shared purpose, and enough structure to keep the connection real. This toolkit contains the tools Alyza uses to work across teams — whether she’s stepping into a new role, leading a cross-functional strategy, or noticing two teams should be talking and aren’t.
From the Helia Library article How to Break Down Silos, based on our Coffee Chat with Alyza Jehangir.
What’s Inside
- Alyza’s Stakeholder Map — the framework for mapping who you need to connect with, how often, and why. Use this when you’re stepping into a new project or role, or when cross-functional work has stopped making sense.
- First-Meeting Questions — five simple questions Alyza uses to open any new relationship — and her favorite prompt (“I like, I wish, I wonder”) for getting past the surface to what people actually think.
- The Connector’s Moves — the small, specific bridging moves Alyza makes between teams that aren’t talking to each other. The scripts and templates that make “be the connector” something you can actually do this week
When these resources aren’t enough
These tools help you structure and show up for cross-functional work. But if the dynamics keep breaking down — if the culture doesn’t support it, if you’re leading a shift that’s bigger than one project, or if you’re holding the approach without the support you need from above — that’s harder to solve alone.
If you want help breaking down silos
Alyza Jehangir runs Jehangir Studio, a space for individuals, creatives, and organizations to interrupt inherited patterns shaping their systems and set into motion new ways of thinking, operating, and creating. Her work is rooted in systems thinking — the belief that to change how an organization moves, you have to first understand the larger forces shaping it. She looks beneath the surface: the patterns in decisions, communication, and structure that are shaping outcomes — and translates that into clear direction teams can act on.
She’s a good fit if:
- You want clarity that translates — into decisions, structures, and ways of working your team can actually use
- You’re leading work that requires real alignment across teams, and you can feel that it’s not happening
- You’re in a moment of evolution — growing, expanding, or preparing for what’s next — and you need someone who can see what’s shaping the system before you build
- You’re navigating a strategic shift and need someone who can hold the human and structural sides at once
