Friday, October 05, 2007
Enterprise Architecture: What do innovative enterprises feel like?
When folks talk about innovation, they tend to talk about processes, business alignment and ROI but almost never talk about the most important aspect which is how innovative enterprises should feel...
Innovation is most certainly stifled in micromanagement cultures which is the first step to be considered. Enterprise Architects shouldn't be focused on the process of innovation and creation of it and instead should be focused on creation of the environment. I am of the belief that they should help managers (IT executives don't enable anything innovative and are merely champions or impediments) motivate others towards creativity.
Generally speaking, for creativity to happen you have to eliminate impediments such as inconsistent hiring practices, confusing organizational structures, suboptimal morale, overemphasis on perception management, silly HR practices such as focusing on competencies, not understanding the distinction between management & leadership and providing compensation only on macro marketplace factors while not consider individual marketplace measures.
If you are honest to yourself, you may want to noodle if each and every person in your enterprise is allowed time for investigating ideas, allowed to have passionate debates, are not forced by IT executives to have one voice and have mechanisms in place to support different ideas and most importantly you have a culture where you can make fun of yourselves. Self-reflection and tuning accordingly is not only a key feel to agility, but also innovation...
| | View blog reactionsInnovation is most certainly stifled in micromanagement cultures which is the first step to be considered. Enterprise Architects shouldn't be focused on the process of innovation and creation of it and instead should be focused on creation of the environment. I am of the belief that they should help managers (IT executives don't enable anything innovative and are merely champions or impediments) motivate others towards creativity.
Generally speaking, for creativity to happen you have to eliminate impediments such as inconsistent hiring practices, confusing organizational structures, suboptimal morale, overemphasis on perception management, silly HR practices such as focusing on competencies, not understanding the distinction between management & leadership and providing compensation only on macro marketplace factors while not consider individual marketplace measures.
If you are honest to yourself, you may want to noodle if each and every person in your enterprise is allowed time for investigating ideas, allowed to have passionate debates, are not forced by IT executives to have one voice and have mechanisms in place to support different ideas and most importantly you have a culture where you can make fun of yourselves. Self-reflection and tuning accordingly is not only a key feel to agility, but also innovation...
