A complexity approach to managing technology enabled business transformation - part 1
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The document discusses a complexity-inspired approach to enterprise architecture as a means to lead technology-enabled business transformation, emphasizing the importance of interdependence, power dynamics, and social conventions in organizational change. It critiques conventional assumptions of enterprise architecture that presume autonomy, determinacy, and agreement, suggesting instead that relationships and collaborative innovation are fundamental to successful transformation. The author advocates for a re-evaluation of how enterprise architecture can drive business outcomes by considering the complexities of human interactions and the interconnectedness of organizational structures.
A complexity approach to managing technology enabled business transformation - part 1
- 1. A Complexity inspired approach to Leading Technology Enabled Business Transformation Doctor of Management (Ph.D) Mikkel H Brahm Head of Architecture, Nordea | Digital Banking
- 2. Mikkel H. Brahm Head of Architecture Nordea | Digital Banking 25+ years of experience in the fields of Software Engineering and Enterprise Architecture Slides available at SlideShare https://www.slideshare.net/mikkelbrahm Doctoral (PhD) Thesis available at UH Seeking to Control Enterprise with Architecture the limits and value of an engineering approach from the perspective of an Enterprise Architect http://uhra.herts.ac.uk/handle/2299/17596 ENTERPRISE Intentional process of doing and organizing business emerging from enabling/constraining figurations of relationships always in flux ARCHITECTURE Guiding organisation of structuring structures including human conventions and mechanisms
- 3. Our roots in natural sciences General Systems Theory
- 4. - 4 =
- 5. - 4 = - 1 4* i 2* 2i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number
- 10. Enterprise architecture (EA) is a discipline for proactively and holistically leading enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change toward desired business vision and outcomes. EA delivers value by presenting business and IT leaders with signature-ready recommendations for adjusting policies and projects to achieve target business outcomes that capitalize on relevant business disruptions. Gartner, IT Glossary
- 11. Orthodox EA What characterizes this thought style?
- 12. 1 Orthodox EA presumes autonomy (and rationality) Individual is primary and apart from other individuals
- 13. 2 Orthodox EA presumes determinacy Spontaneity and improvisation is absent or insignificant
- 14. 3 Orthodox EA presumes openness Everything can (and should) be shared and modelled
- 15. 4 Orthodox EA presumes enterprise intentionality Enterprise treated as Entity with own strategy and goals
- 16. 5 Orthodox EA presumes agreement Not aligned individual goals are illegitimate / selfish
- 17. Assumptions that characterise orthodox EA (and Systems Theory) 1. Autonomy 2. Determinacy 3. Openness 4. Intentionality 5. Agreement • The individual is primary, makes meaning of experiences, and makes rational decisions about which course of action to take • Knowable set of stimuli-response; If we know what factors into a situation, then we can predict what will happen in that situation • Information is assumed to be shared openly and hence freely available, so that everything can (and should) be modelled and documented • The Enterprise is treated as an entity with intentionality, and conflicting individual intentionality is made illegitimate • People are assumed to agree on goals and means, or at least architecture cannot begin until agreement is reached
- 18. Complexity I What characterizes this thought style?
- 20. people have function for each other we are born into relationships to people upon whom we depend Elias, Norbert (1991). The Society of Individuals. Basil Blackwell.
- 21. 1 Interdependence enable and constrain our actions Socially unacceptable behavior can damage relationships
- 22. 2 We often act habitually / acceptably to garner support. Provocative actions can lead to renegotiation of norms.
- 23. Phronesis: Wisdom / Practical Judgment – experience based Knowing what it is right to do = being a virtuous person Episteme: Theory and Basic assumptions – pure knowledge Techne: Craftmanship / Method – can be taught
- 24. 3 Power dynamics enable and constrain what it is prudent to say both for subordinates and for the power holders 5 times “Why?” => Socially acceptable rationalization Scott, John C (1990). Domination and the Arts of Resistance - Hidden transcripts. Yale University Press.
- 25. 4 Power is never equally distributed. Any leverage can be used to further one’s interests in any other area. Jackall, Robert (2010). Moral Mazes – The World of Corporate Managers. Oxford University Press.
- 26. Linear causality Culture forms Behaviour OR Behaviour forms Culture Circular or Transformative causality Culture forms Behaviour AND Behaviour forms Culture
- 27. 5 Collaborative innovation hinges on mutual trust that others can contribute what we ourselves cannot
- 28. Assumptions underpinning my approach (contrasted with assumptions underpinning Systems Theory) 1. Autonomy 2. Determinacy 3. Openness 4. Intentionality 5. Agreement 1. Mutual interdependence 2. Self-disciplining and Spontaneity 3. Hidden Transcript and Public Transcript 4. Figuration of relationships with power-differentials 5. Web of Intentionality - Collaboration and Competition
- 29. Individual Group Relationship Figuration = Patterns of Relationships in Flux
- 30. Mechanism Scripted ActionTranscription (or Inscription or Encoding) Author (Developer) Actor (User) Prescription Actor-Network Theory “primer” (https://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/papers/Latour_Mixing.pdf) Actor Techne can be taught, Phronesis cannot – perhaps we can only transcribe Techne?
- 31. Technology and Mechanisms 1. Autonomy 2. Determinacy 3. Openness 4. Intentionality 5. Agreement 1. Interdependence 2. Self-disciplining 3. Hidden Transcript 4. Power Figuration 5. Collaborate/compete 1. Transcription 2. Turing machines 3. Knowable but complicated 4. Scripted Action & Prescription 5. No responsiveness (Bruno Latour)
- 32. No Universal Theory Systems Theory explains mechanical systems Process Theory explains humans organizing
- 34. Elias, Norbert (1978). What is Sociology? Columbia University Press. Multi-tiered game representatives • delegates leaders • government court • elite We tend to personify the source of the constraints which we feel compelled to obey
- 35. Complexity II What characterizes this thought style?
- 36. Society is a figuration, and status etc. is not evenly distributed => Everyone cannot win at the same time A subset of society has similar properties e.g. a market => There is no formula that will allow everyone to win
- 37. Gossiping has the social function to re-iterate norms and values in light of particular (or imaginary) situations
- 38. Norms what it is normal to do aka customs + Values how we make value judgements culture eats strategy for breakfast Peter Drucker Culture the way of life / living / organizing
- 39. If our individual behavior is not socially acceptable we risk exclusion i.e. others cease to have function for us In an organizational setting exclusion can mean being fired, but can also just mean that you do not participate in the fun stuff
- 40. Enforcement – example Boss instructs EA to focus on modelling and documentation Social convention – example EA is overly critical towards senior managers’ ideas and desires
- 41. One of the most crucial questions for a player is when to play – and when to pass
- 42. Baboons do not use Baboon-made technology Social order is re-enacted and re-negotiated every day
- 43. Prescription = what the script presupposes from its transcribed actors and authors Transcription = action hitherto played out by human or nonhuman actors is translated to a more durable repertoire
- 44. We use physical constructs to symbolize social convention
- 45. Scripted-action lends durability to social conventions since scripted enactment is not as such a renegotiation Materiality can have function for people in the sense that the scripted action and prescription can enable and constrain
- 46. An early well-known ”Industrial transformation” into the Hunter-Gatherer Society Technologies that enable hunter-gatherer-society: • Hunting tools e.g. spear, spear thrower • Enables efficient procurement of meat, skins etc. • Gathering tools e.g. wicker basket • Enables efficient gathering of roots, herbs etc. • Fire • Enables cooking of food • Restricts movement • Leads to tribal gathering point • Leads to communal meal • Language / speech • Enables expression of needs and fears etc. • Enables co-cordination and colaboration • Division of Labour – hunter, gatherer, tool-maker • Adam Smith (1776) ”An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” • Xenophon (4th century BC) ”Cyropaedia”
- 47. Dichotomy & idealization tends to constrain available options • Good • Agreement • Control • Transparent • Bad • Disagreement • Freedom, Autonomy or Empowerment • Opaque • Useful for some, less for others • Negotiation, Collaboration & Competition • Enabling & Constraining, Self-disciplining • Public & Hidden Transcripts + Ruptures
- 48. We must cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative terms: it ‘excludes’, it ‘represses’, it ‘censors’, it ‘abstracts’, it ‘masks’, it ‘conceals’. In fact power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth. Michel Foucault
- 49. It entails a refusal to use intellectual resources outside a narrow and ‘safe’ terrain Functional stupidity is organizationally-supported lack of reflexivity, substantive reasoning, and justification Source: Alvesson & Spicer, A stupidity-based theory of organizations
- 50. • Customer’s devices • Customer’s systems e.g. ERP • Search Engines • Public Infrastructure • Market places • Laws and norms • Standards of doing business • Labour unions • Taboos Architecture, both as-is and to-be, is also outside the company This can be a source of both some stability and some change
- 51. James Lapalme, l’École de Technologie Supérieure Enterprise Architecture is many things to many people…
- 52. Our product sells how can we produce it cheaper or faster Inside-in Our product does not sell, but should how can we market it better Inside-out Our product does not seem to work what is it that customers do need Outside-in Our product would work in a different market who can augment our product Outside-out Figuration has no in-/outside, but we can take the perspective of the other e.g. the customer, the regulator, the partner etc.
- 53. Not only Architects feel competent (and want) to direct change, so be prepared for a political struggle if you seek influence