When people ask me what I do for a living I often joke that I manage chaos and keep people aligned. In other words, I deal with the politics that plague every organization. It feels like I spend the majority of my time clarifying what was actually said, convincing people that they agree with each other, and just trying to keep things moving forward. Some refer to this as herding cats. A key skill for a business architect is political savviness, meaning the ability to successfully get things done in a maze of egos, competing priorities, and organizational bedlam. So how do you develop political savviness? Let's look at this from two different perspectives.
Science
As a starting point, let's look at a scientific view of working in organizations. (Two sources for this material can be found at the end of this article.) Many people were exposed to the concept of Chaos Theory in the Jurassic Park films. The mathematician, played by Jeff Goldblum, warned that the park was an accident waiting to happen and accurately predicted that unanticipated events would cause the park to spiral out of control and into chaos. Somewhere between the laws of chaos and the laws of order lies Complexity Theory, which is a more scientifically accurate term for describing an organization. This theory proposes that systems are unpredictable, but are constrained by rules that maintain a degree of order. An organization is a special type of system that is complex and adaptive, where the individuals and the overall organization (i.e. structure, culture, behaviors, etc.) evolve together. Individual behavior is lightly constrained by rules (e.g. human resource policies), but everything changes as individuals interact. The behaviors of individuals change and groups adapt and self-organize due to events and changes, making it extremely complex to predict how organizations as a whole will react to change. This is why large-scale organizational change management initiatives are so difficult. It is challenging enough to accurately predict the reactions of individuals, let alone how the interactions of those individuals will impact the overall organizational change goals.
So why should business architects care about this? Here's why:
The BIZBOK® states: The value of business architecture is to provide an abstract representation of an enterprise and the business ecosystem in which it operates. By doing so, business architecture delivers value as an effective communication and analytical framework for translating strategy into actionable initiatives. The framework also enhances the enterprises capacity to enact transformational change, navigate complexity, reduce risk, make more informed decisions, align diverse stakeholders to a shared vision of the future, and leverage technology more effectively.
Sound familiar? Sounds like business architects should be complexity theorists! So how can we use Complexity Theory to help us be more politically savvy and to be better business architects?
Competencies
Beyond understanding and accepting that organizations are complex, there are competencies that are important to build upon to be more politically savvy. Here are a few:
In summary, recognize that organizations are complex and expect the unexpected. Always have a contingency plan. Use tools like a stakeholder analysis to help identify who is most likely to be impacted and how to best keep them engaged and informed. Don't be too prescriptive and over-assume you know what people need. Let things play out, adjust as you go.
And overall: appreciate the chaos, it is part of what makes business architecture so valuable.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complexity_theory_and_organizations
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/15099?gko=73fbc
This article was prepared by Dean Heltemes in his personal capacity. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent the view of his employer.
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