Collaboration: key to EA success
Our previous article looked at the strategic considerations for any organisation’s Enterprise Architecture journey: ensuring the vision and strategy is defined, gaining the support of executives, and guarding against creating overly-conceptual ‘Ivory Towers’.
This article explores the so-called “softer issues” relating to EA: collaboration and change leadership.
Collaboration
EA, like many emerging disciplines, is developing quickly – new approaches, tools, standards, languages and metrics arrive at rapid pace. Without a collaborative environment, staffed with individuals who revel in this ever-changing landscape, the EA practice is at risk of stagnating.
"We recommend creating a culture of open collaboration - where content flows to the right people in a secure and coordinated way"
We recommend creating a culture of open collaboration – an environment where content flows to the right people in a secure and coordinated way.
When EA practitioners collaborate and better manage their content, knowledge coordination kicks into gear, leading to productivity improvements and a more satisfying and engaging work environment.
The opposite of this is an ugly (and all-too-common) situation: fragmented documentation, multiple instances of SharePoint all over the organisation, information housed on local hard drives, discordant sets of data, and poorly-maintained content - a dysfunctional state of affairs that any EA should seek to avoid.
Change leadership
An organisation’s EA practice can trip itself up by not ensuring its activities are embedded within a comprehensive change leadership strategy.
All too often, change management efforts are performed in ad-hoc bursts of activity, usually in response to immediate crises. This is a recipe for failure. Change management must be dealt with in a planned and sustainable manner, as a key part of the EA approach, and needs to be an integral part of everyone’s way of working.
"Its crucial for the team to become true change leaders - inspiring those around them, and propelling the practice forward"
It’s crucial that the Chief Architect develop her team to become true change leaders - inspiring those around them, and propelling the practice forward.
Successful change leadership encourages key stakeholders in the organisation to participate. By continually measuring and communicating EA successes, stakeholders see the value of their own time-investments, and feel a greater sense of reward for getting involved.
By focusing on change leadership, the EA team is more likely to grow its mandate and influence, and stands a better chance of winning better business (for example, being asked to tackle new projects within the organisation).
