Chapter 19. The Squeaky Wheel and the Silo Cracker
Divergence Bootcamp Jogja, Indonesia | Oct 31 - Nov 2 2025
Every generation has its explorers. Some scale mountains, others chart oceans. But in today’s complex world, a new kind of adventure has emerged—one that doesn’t chase geographical frontiers but navigates the messy, human landscapes of business, sustainability, and community resilience.
A group of curious thinkers has taken up this challenge. They do not carry maps or compasses; instead, they carry questions. Why do businesses fail even when they appear to have resources? Why do supermarkets, with their supposed economies of scale, sometimes sell products at higher prices than small shops? Why is operational excellence so critical to survival? Why do people, even when they share the same vision, struggle to work together?
Their journey began in Vietnam and now continues in Indonesia. Along the way, two powerful metaphors have emerged to guide their thinking: the squeaky wheel and the silo cracker. These metaphors capture the essence of the obstacles they see again and again—the cracks in processes that erode value and the silos that block collaboration.
Instead of a dry conference or a standard workshop, the team designs their journey as an immersive adventure, with missions, challenges, and reflections. Over three days, participants step into character roles, confront inefficiencies, break silos, and build sustainable solutions. By the end, they don’t just learn new concepts—they carry home mindset reports that reveal their own traits and behaviors, showing them how to function at their best in complex ecosystems.
The Squeaky Wheel: Cracks in Process
Every organization has its squeaky wheels. They show up as recurring problems that demand attention: a shipment that is always delayed, a supplier who never delivers on time, a machine that breaks down every few weeks, a customer complaint that refuses to go away. At first, the squeak seems small. Someone patches it up. A manager approves overtime. Extra resources are thrown at the problem. For a while, the squeak goes quiet.
But then it returns. Again and again. Until eventually, the squeak becomes part of the rhythm of the business. Business Leaders stop asking “Why does this wheel keep squeaking?” and start asking “How do we manage the noise?”
This is what the team calls cracks in the process. These inefficiencies don’t remain isolated—they spread. A textile workshop in Vietnam wasted fabric in production but shrugged it off as “the cost of doing business.” A food distributor lost a third of its produce to spoilage but accepted it as unavoidable. A mid-sized manufacturer in Indonesia repeatedly failed to meet delivery deadlines, layering supervisors and buffer stocks to mask the issue rather than fixing its scheduling cracks.
The tragedy is not only financial but cultural. Once inefficiencies are normalized, they fade into the background—no longer seen, no longer questioned. The urgency to fix them disappears. Over time, they silently erode capability, shrink margins, and undermine trust. The end result is an ecosystem unable to achieve the structure needed for lift-off, leaving communities and industries decades behind their true potential.
But here lies the insight: the squeaky wheel is not a nuisance to be managed; it is a signal to be decoded. Each squeak reveals where capability is missing, where processes are weak, and where growth is possible. Treating inefficiency as a teacher—rather than a shame to be hidden—is the first step to resilience.
The Silo Cracker: Breaking Invisible Walls
If squeaky wheels represent cracks in process, silos represent the walls people build around themselves. Silos are not always physical or structural. Often, they are invisible—psychological, cultural, or political.
Farmers sell produce separately, losing bargaining power, even when joining forces could strengthen them all. Departments within the same company hoard information, fearing loss of control, even when sharing data could accelerate innovation. Logistics providers, distributors, and retailers fail to coordinate, leaving farmers with unsold crops rotting in the fields.
The result? Potential gets trapped. Knowledge stops flowing. Collaboration stalls. Opportunities slip away. While AI steadily builds collective intelligence, we fail to recognize the strengths in one another. Instead, we fixate on weaknesses, and from fear arises our tendency to compartmentalize. In doing so, we limit our true potential and fracture the very synergy that could propel teams and ecosystems forward.
The team calls this section the silo crackers because they believe the first step to sustainability is breaking these unnecessary walls. In Vietnam, they watched how small producers—once locked in fierce competition—learned to collaborate. Farmers pooled resources, cooperatives formed, and distribution improved. Each member retained independence but gained strength from shared effort.
Silo cracking is not about flattening diversity or forcing artificial unity—it’s about weaving strengths together. Where one actor is weak, another may be strong. Each member is unique; the challenge lies in fitting those pieces together. When the best of each is added into the collective equation, the entire ecosystem rises.
So how do we begin? Where does the journey start? Here’s the blueprint of an adventure—one you’re welcome to explore, should you choose to step in.
Click the image to explore the Team FD website — or simply continue reading below
Day 1: The Broken Map
In Indonesia, the program begins with arrival, check-in, and character selection. Participants don’t just register names; they choose roles—entrepreneur, supplier, distributor, regulator, or customer. This immersive role-play ensures that when they face challenges, they see them from multiple lenses.
The welcome briefing sets the tone: “Every business has cracks in its map. Our job is not to hide them but to find them.”
The first mission, The Broken Map, confronts participants with a simulated business ecosystem riddled with inefficiencies. Logistics collapse, communication falters, resources leak value. Their task: diagnose the inefficiencies, listen to the squeaky wheels, and uncover deeper issues.
Midway, a Mystery Divergence Card is drawn. It introduces AI-driven scenarios, forcing participants to confront the paradox: machines learn from negatives, but humans tend to cover them up. Do they trust AI, resist it, or blend it carefully with human judgment?
The day ends with evening reflection, where participants share: What squeaks did we find? Why do we normalize them in real life?
Day 2: The Twist & The Truth Map
The second day is about building. If Day 1 diagnosed cracks, Day 2 designs solutions. The mission is called The Twist & The Truth Map.
Teams must redesign the ecosystem, transforming inefficiencies into strengths. The silo cracker metaphor comes alive: no single role can solve problems alone. Entrepreneurs need suppliers, distributors need regulators, and everyone needs trust.
A mid-level boss challenge interrupts: Interdependency Thinking. Teams must merge heritage (local wisdom and traditions), AI (technology), and innovation (new models) into one coherent system. They learn that sustainability is not about replacing the old with the new but weaving them together.
The day ends with a celebration dinner and awards ceremony, where creativity, courage, and collaboration are recognized. The message is clear: cracking silos creates strength.
Day 3: The Final Mission
The final day is the climax. The final mission challenge demands that participants bring everything together—diagnosing inefficiencies, breaking silos, and blending heritage, AI, and innovation—into one coherent design. The goal: a sustainable and scalable business model.
The tension is real. Some solutions look brilliant on paper but collapse under questioning. Others, simple and unpolished, reveal deep sustainability potential. Teams must wrestle with trade-offs: short-term profit versus long-term resilience, control versus collaboration, efficiency versus inclusivity.
By the closing ceremony, the lesson is clear: sustainability is not an abstract SDG or a corporate slogan. It is the lived practice of fixing squeaky wheels and cracking silos—day after day, decision after decision.
Departure comes in the evening or the next morning. Yet participants leave not only with memories but also with personal mindset reports—detailed reflections captured across traits essential to their roles. These reports become mirrors, showing them how they handle inefficiencies, how they collaborate across silos, and how they can function at their very best in real business ecosystems.
And for those who choose to subscribe, these reports can continue to be evaluated and refined through activities for up to six months after signing in.
The Adventure Ahead
This three-day journey in Indonesia will be more than a workshop. It would be a story - a conversational journey—a lived metaphor. The squeaky wheel teaches us that inefficiencies are signals of growth, not inconveniences to be silenced. The silo cracker reminds us that true sustainability emerges when walls are broken and strengths are shared.
By turning the program into missions, challenges, and role-play, participants don’t just talk about sustainability—they experience it. And by receiving their mindset reports, they leave with something rare: a personalized compass for growth.
As they return to the real world, the true adventure begins. They carry with them two powerful tools: the courage to listen to the squeaks and the wisdom to crack silos. Together, these tools form the foundation of resilient, sustainable ecosystems. And, importantly, they also gain a deeper understanding of how technology—and AI in particular—can be harnessed to strengthen capabilities and accelerate growth.
Like all great adventures, this one doesn’t end at departure. It lives on—in every decision made, every collaboration sparked, every crack revealed, and every silo broken. After the three days, we remain connected virtually through technology.
Remember: technology and AI do not reject the negative—they learn from it. Yet AI cannot truly create something new; it is still learning to improvise. That means we still hold the edge in how it is used. And that is where our true responsibility begins: to improve ourselves while leveraging technology responsibly and sustainably, for the benefit of all connected ecosystems. Technology is only an enabler. The real engine—the true chip that powers the ecosystem—is in us - the human mind.
If you’re ready for a challenge—or if you want to improve your company’s performance, strengthen your team, or simply push yourself to the next level—we welcome you to join us on this journey.
To know more, contact our team in Indonesia:
📞 +62 813 5756 5429
📧 silvia@y-lab.co | mail@fundamentaldecisions.com
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