Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight...

The day begins with a grin and a prayer to excuse my sins...



Several days ago, fellow architect and I had an interesting dialog on our perspectives of working in corporate America. We were reminiscing about our days in consulting when we didn't have to focus on beggingselling to our peers on going with the most mature idea over the most popular idea. We did conclude at the end that the experiences we have picked up in corporate America has made us better individuals although we wish we could have found an easier path.

We also started talking about how to get others in our network to start blogging and sharing their thoughts with a larger audience. For me, it turned into an action item to introduce at least ten architects that are currently employed by Fortune 100 enterprises to start blogging by year's end. For him, he already has a blog but needed to refocus his thoughts and center them around the notion of quiet desperation.

Now that the economy is turning around, I expect the for folks to start shopping around their resumes. For me, unless I can be a work-from-home CIO of a Fortune 100 enterprise who had sole discretion of a $200 million or better budget then I would never consider looking. Desperation is building up in many places where outsourcing has been successful in achieving mediocrity and strong technical leadership is missing in action. So, what should folks do or at least think about? I believe they should consider the following thoughts...

1. Understand why. There's a reason why things are done the way they are, and it isn't because your coworkers are incompetent or malicious. Sometimes they may be ignorant, but even that isn't the only reason.

2. Determine how you can successfully get out, whether that means finding another job, going back to your old duties, or something else. Think about how and why you would make your escape.

3. People have to want to change, and they'll only want to change if they think it will get them something they can't get otherwise.

4. Find other people in the organization that share your views. Sometimes two voices are more convincing than one. It's also nice to talk to someone that agrees with you occasionally. If you can't find comfort within your own corridors, start blogging and find comfort by talking to folks in other organizations.

5. Don't stepfocus on the leadership, but do focus on yourself. You can cause change on a bottom-up basis, but it will be hard and impermanent. Simultaneously work on creating memes that change people's way of thinking and permeate the organization. Your bottom-up efforts will contribute to the memes, so don't get discouraged.