ECYS Minister Melissa Gumbs
PHILIPSBURG--Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (ECYS) Minister Melissa Gumbs would like to see a cultural shift within government to break down siloed operations, following the ministry’s strategic planning session held February 13.
Speaking Tuesday during her ECYS Matters livestream, Gumbs said a recurring theme throughout the discussions was that departments and divisions tend to operate in silos. She said this pattern is frequently heard in government, not only in St. Maarten but elsewhere, and sometimes in the private sector as well, though less often because private companies are driven by profit. She said silo behaviour is rooted in people rather than structures.
“Silos are not built by governments or companies; actually, they are built by people,” she said, explaining that silos reflect attitudes within organisations. According to the minister, if individuals choose to work in isolation, the broader unit often follows.
Gumbs cautioned that breaking silo culture is not something a single person can fix once it spreads through a department. While leadership can encourage, enable, demand and push for more collaboration and cooperation, she stressed that meaningful change must come from within teams themselves. She added that sometimes it takes colleagues holding each other accountable to bring someone into alignment.
The minister said she is looking forward to a cultural shift within her own ministry and across government, noting that the issue is often wrongly attributed to systems and procedures.
“We act as if the processes and procedures and the systems is what makes us work in silos, but actually it’s really an attitude problem,” she said.
Drawing on her personal experience at the former UTS (now FLOW), Gumbs explained that her customer service division previously had little to no communication with the operations department responsible for infrastructure sites. To address the disconnect, she proposed biweekly meetings to align targets and improve coordination.
The change helped prevent situations where customers were installed on sites without available capacity, which had previously led to complaints. Gumbs described the initiative as a simple but effective example of how silos can be broken.
She maintained that any system or process is only as strong as the people operating it and reiterated that improving collaboration ultimately depends on individual willingness to change.
The Minister indicated that the session was “interactive and enjoyable” and publicly thanked participants for their candour and willingness to reflect and add value.
