I agree that siloed thinking is bad, but so is a lack of understanding of the tasks that your team members have to perform. To participate in any team process, whether it is building a house, producing a new soft drink, or developing software, you need to have some practical experience of the whole process. I don't mean that you should be an expert but you need to know about every role.  After all, a musician in an orchestra won't be expected to be able to play every instrument, two or three maybe, but will need to know enough about what is involved to understand the constraints and limitations. The poor conductor is actually expected to know quite a lot about every instrument. An Anaesthetist has a complete medical training and experience in surgery, intensive care and pain management.   In IT, by contrast, it is common to find developers who have not even the vaguest idea of multiuser/multiprocess systems and transactions, and entirely lack any knowledge of the legal constraints under which we operate. We have, to be fair, Database people who entirely lack understanding of application development. No amount of group hugs or whiteboard meetings can substitute for an appreciation of the roles and tasks of other IT disciplines.