Following the creation of the enterprise architecture (EA) vision - which I explored in my previous Industry Insight - I now turn to the crucial steps of communicating the vision of business transformation, and empowering broad-based action from the teams required to execute the vision.
From the outset, the guiding coalition is responsible for communicating the EA vision to a nucleus group of stakeholders. As the EA practice develops momentum, the communication emanates outwards, to an increasingly broad group of stakeholders within the business.
Clearly, in this phase, timing is everything.
Over time, the EA practice evolves from its fledgling state to greater levels of maturity. As this happens, the nature of the messages will change.
John Kotter (who advises on the eight stages of change management) says the communication needs to contain the following characteristics:
* Simplicity (eliminating jargon and verbosity);
* Metaphor-rich (pictures are worth a thousand words);
* Multiple forums (leadership sessions, team meetings, newsletters, Intranets, etc);
* Repetition (to reinforce the key messages and ensure they 'sink in');
* Leadership by example (conduct from leadership that aligns with the communications and messaging);
* Explaining apparent inconsistencies (address everything that seems counterintuitive or illogical, to avoid the communication being undermined); and
* Two-way communication (involving a feedback loop wherever possible greatly increases engagement and empowerment levels).
Put simply, the goal of this phase is to ensure the right staff are provided with the right information, at the right time - and empowered to work constructively within the new EA framework.
The advantages of formalising corporate intellectual property and establishing an EA practice need to be clearly articulated - at both an individual level and a company-wide level. If the EA vision is not clearly understood, people will very quickly disengage. They will revert to old habits and frameworks of working, and the timelines for the EA practice to start delivering business value will increase.
Too often, the coalition becomes overly-enamoured with EA as a discipline - too 'inwardly-focused' - and forgets about the importance of communicating regularly with key stakeholders, business owners, and decision-makers across the organisation.
In fact, there is a continuum, ranging on the one end from the purist that "sits in an Ivory Tower" and becomes too academic and removed from the business, to the other end of the spectrum, with an EA practice experienced in the realities of the company, knows its challenges (eg, political, technical, legacy-related), and takes a pragmatic approach to EA.
The latter is the approach most likely to succeed in generating a sustainable and value-adding EA practice.
Over time, the EA practice evolves from its fledgling state to greater levels of maturity.
Here I use the analogy of running the EA practice like a business in itself: through delivering value to stakeholders one builds a relationship where people willingly engage with the EA practice. In this ideal scenario, positive word of mouth is created - which becomes one of the most valuable forms of internal communication.
Another very impactful form of communicating the vision is when the coalition exemplifies the behaviour it is seeking to establish in others, and 'leads by example'. By becoming a role model, the coalition is more likely to succeed in its quest to develop new ways of working within the broader company.
But communication alone is not enough. Ensuring the broad-based empowerment of people involves doing the following:
* Teams need to understand the vision for business transformation and the EA value proposition that will enable it. Individuals must internalise this, consider what it means to them, and truly buy into the vision. They, in turn, will become 'marketers' of the company's EA practice - articulating the vision to other stakeholders.
* Teams need to receive quality, comprehensive training on the EA disciplines and activities as they relate to the individual's particular function within the company. They must be empowered with the architecture content that allows them to start harvesting information.
* From there, teams need to populate all of this existing content (such as business strategies, IT strategies, existing applications portfolios, etc) into an integrated EA repository, fully embedded in the organisation.
* An EA methodology - such as TOGAF - is customised and tailored to the company. This means aligning the EA process with the systems development life cycle, strategic planning, corporate governance, and business process improvement, for example.
* Any barriers, at any stage, need to be swiftly removed, so individuals are unleashed to work and to add value within the new framework.
In my next Industry Insight, I will look at how this foundation enables the EA practice to achieve vital short-term successes.
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