Because a silo isn’t a communication failure: it’s a consequence of incentives. When only one unit can be credited for solving something, sharing reduces your own chance of being credited — and a meeting doesn’t change incentives.
So communication doesn’t help at all?
It helps when the problem is simply not knowing. It doesn’t help when each area knows and still doesn’t share, because sharing costs them and benefits someone else.
What changes when the fact is aggregated?
Credit stops being contested. A pattern that appears in four areas belongs to none of them, and the finding is investigated on the process — never on whoever reported it.
Does this replace the meeting?
No. It changes what goes into it: instead of competing versions of the same story, a structure with a source on every end. The decision is still made by people, in the room.
A cross-department meeting negotiates narrative. What’s missing beforehand is a fact none of the areas can claim as its own.