Tom Graves / Tetradian

This one started a couple days ago, with a straightforward Tweet-query from Dave Gray:

• davegray: “Strategy is design.” Agree or disagree? Why?

What followed was, for me, one of the best back-and-forth Twitter-conversations in recent weeks:

• nickmalik: @davegray design is a method.  Strategy is a result.  Fair to say good strategy may result from design, or luck, or intuition
• tetradian: @nickmalik @davegray would say that strategy tends to (or should?) come before design – or that they interweave with each other
• oscarberg: Strategy (what & why) primarily requires knowledge, tactics (how, when) primarily requires skill.
• davegray: @tetradian @nickmalik IMO a strategy is not a result. Profits, growth, revenue, etc. are results. A strategy is an approach. // hard for me to see how good strategy can be the result of luck. To me, it can’t be a strategy if it’s not intentional.
• mikerollings: @davegray @nickmalik @tetradian strategy must influence and be influenced by execution – you must be open to learning from happy accidents
• tetradian: @mikerollings @davegray @nickmalik “strategy must influence / be influenced by exec”n – open to learn from happy accidents” >strong agree
• davegray: @mikerollings 100% agree. @nickmalik @tetradian
• nickmalik: @davegray each step in a process produces a result.  The strategic dev step produces strategy as a result.  That step may use design, or not
• davegray: @nickmalik sure, strategy is a result of a strategic dev process, like a plan is the result of a planning process. cc @tetradian
• davegray: @tetradian @nickmalik it seems to me that design and strategy are both methods or approaches, ie, means to an end, with significant overlap.
• davegray: @tetradian @mikerollings @nickmalik 140-character limit constraining. Will write a post & try to make my point more coherently
• tetradian: @davegray @nickmalik in my exp., strategy sets out the intent, design is more about realising the intent (but also feeds back into strategy)
• ruthmalan: @tetradian @davegray @nickmalik Agreed Tom — you’ve better phrased my (playful) reply to Dave yesterday. Also consider: emergence vs intent
• davegray: @ruthmalan @tetradian @nickmalik I think this may be one of those times when words get in the way of meaning
• ruthmalan: @davegray [ @tetradian @nickmalik ]    or the lack of words? Can strategy, like meaning, be emergent? Or is it strictly intentional?
• davegray: @ruthmalan @tetradian @nickmalik strategy can intentionally create opportunities 4 emergence. Also unintentionally, but that’s not strategy // IMO a good strategy in uncertain environment preserves optionality & is ready to pivot quickly
• nickmalik: @tetradian two places where “design thinking” is used: developing strategy and implementing it. Which are we discussing?
• tetradian: @nickmalik design-thinking is used in both strategy and implementation; most of design-doing happens only in execution
• johnt: @davegray @tetradian From strategic planning to purpose and resilience http://bit.ly/vfJxaj >strong agree #entarch
• ArtBourbon: @davegray  @ruthmalan @tetradian @nickmalik looks like I missed a good discussion (strategy, intent, emergence etc)
• davegray: @mikerollings @tetradian I forget who said this: luck is when opportunity meets preparedness
• tetradian: @davegray @mikerollings “who said: luck is when opportunity meets preparedness” – Pasteur: see ch.3 and appdx in ‘The Art of Scientific Investigation’ http://bit.ly/7U1vgy
• mikerollings: @davegray @tetradian #nickmalik “Luck, Serendipity, and the Contextual Strategist” #entarch http://bit.ly/utJWnT >strong agree
• davegray: @mikerollings @tetradian I think context is part of it. Also important is a set of values/principles that guide decisions within the context
• tetradian: RT @davegray: @mikerollings “Also important is a set of values/principles that guide decisions within the context” >v.strong agree #entarch
• ruthmalan: @tetradian – thanks for ptr to The Art of Scientific Investigation – glad you shared it with Dave/Mike and we who follow y’all
• tetradian: @ruthmalan – glad you liked ‘Art of Scientific Investigation’ – one of my all-time favorite books! (eg. see end-summary chap. on Reason)
• ruthmalan: @tetradian There I was enjoying the Serendipity of the chapter on Chance Indeed, that end-chp summary on Reason is wonderful! Thx again!
• mikerollings: @davegray @tetradian values & principles are part of context, and there is no notion of the context setters & the consumer. We all do it.
• davegray: @mikerollings now you have lost me. Is there anything that isn’t part of the context? @tetradian
• mikerollings: @davegray Context=shared undrstndng within which we co-create. So there is context & doing. Some doing creates context w/ others @tetradian
• davegray: @mikerollings so our decisions & actions should be guided by shared understanding. Am I missing something important? @tetradian

As can be seen from the links above, the conversation triggered at least two excellent additional posts:

• John Tropea, ‘From strategic planning to purpose and resilience’ (mostly a long quote from Dave Pollard, but also a long list of pointers to other related articles)
• Mike Rollings, ‘Luck, Serendipity and the Contextual Strategist‘

My own view? I’d say they’re somewhat different: closely related, but somewhat orthogonal to each other. Strategy ‘is’ design in the sense of design-as-intent, but not in the more common sense of design-for-implementation. In that latter sense, strategy is an input into the design-process. Yet in a way strategy can also be in part an output from the design-process – especially when eliciting strategy for detail-layer changes. So yeah, it’s kinda complicated…

When I said I was moving on, in the previous post ‘Time for this on toad to move on‘, yes, I was serious: I’m moving out of mainstream ‘enterprise’-architecture.

Am I giving up? No, not at all.

Am I actually leaving the entire enterprise-architecture domain? Nope. (Sorry to disappoint a few folks there, but you’ll just have to put up with that. )

So what exactly am I doing, then?

All I’m doing here, metaphorically speaking, is that I’m moving along the road a bit: a few metaphoric houses up the road, if you like. Similar sort of work to what I’ve always done, in many ways, but a much bigger picture this time. A much bigger picture. I’m not going to be looking (much) at the ‘enterprise’-architecture of some small bits of detail-level IT any more: I’ll be looking at the ‘enterprise-architecture’ of the whole darn planet…

Arrogant sucker, ain’t I?

In a way, yeah, of course it is, to say something like that. But if you look around on this blog and elsewhere, in effect that’s what I’ve already been doing, for years. All that’s really different now is that I’m making it a bit more explicit.

And to be blunt, looking around a bit, it really does feel as if I’m one of the few people anywhere who has a freakin’ clue about what’s really going on out there (answer: an MQ-9 mythquake [kind of like a worldwide Richter-9 earthquake, only worse]), what chance we have to stop it (answer: none at all), what won’t work (answer: just about everything we might think of as ‘normal’ or ‘business-as-usual’), and what might work (very-tentative-suggested-answer: something on the lines of a responsibility-based service-oriented enterprise model for a global economics, with systematic eradication of any concept of possession – including all concept of ‘rights’ – and total restructure of every possible aspect of politics at every level. In other words, just a few minor changes here and there… ). Seems like there might be a real need, then, for someone with my kind of background in futures, social-dynamics, skills-development, creativity, complexity, innovation, sensemaking and strategy, across a whole swathe of different companies, climates, cultures and continents. Oh, and there’s also enterprise-architectures, of course: reckon that might possibly be useful, too.

Yes: a real big need for that.

Kind of a big anti-want for it, though.

A very big anti-want.

Oh well.

But no problem, really. Do I think I can make a living out of it? Nope, of course not: I’m not that crazy. But I’m not making any kind of viable living out of enterprise-architecture, either, so what’s the difference? As long as I can pay my way somehow in this increasingly-insane ‘economic system’, that’s all I’ll need. And given that I’ve survived somehow for all these years, without ever having suffered the indignity of being a so-called ‘permanent’ employee, I reckon I’ll manage to keep going for a while yet. Somehow. Doesn’t really matter that I don’t know how: the way things are going, pretty soon no concept of a ‘plan’ is going to make sense any more, so perhaps I’m just getting in early to beat the rush?

Yeah, sure it’s lonely at times: I don’t have any real support at all, no family, no partner since literally decades ago, and at my age pretty unlikely ever again. Good: it means that there’s no-one else to get hurt on my behalf if I screw things up.

Sure it’s scary, desperately insecure: I don’t even have a home of my own any more. Good: nothing particularly to lose, then; nothing of that kind that can be used as leverage against me. And I can just up-sticks and go anywhere that I’m needed. Easy. (In principle, anyway… )

I’m useless at organising anything, events, stuff like that. Good: instead of desperately pretending that I can do everything myself, let other people do that stuff instead – they’re much better at it than I’ve ever been or ever will be. Just do my part of the work, and let others get on with theirs. Simple. (Interesting challenges on trust, of course… )

Turn every obstacle into an opportunity. Live this stuff that I’ve been talking about: rather than ‘making a living’, much better to go for ‘making a life’.

Crazy? Sure. Of course it is: never said it wasn’t. But then I come out of a family-background with a long anarchist-style tradition (of the more constructive if occasionally-quixotic Quaker variety, rather than the brainless bomb-throwing kind), and it’s about time I put those principles into real-world practice. Time to give something back – especially as, at age 60, I probably don’t have that many years left in which to do so. That fact matters, a lot. It also brings its own rather interesting sense of urgency…

So what does all this mean, in plain, ordinary, everyday terms?

Various things I won’t be doing:

1. I won’t do any more work here on detail-layer analysis of IT-oriented ‘enterprise’-architecture such as TOGAF or Archimate (unless anyone specifically asks me for an opinion or whatever).
2. I won’t be presenting myself for any more contract-work as an ‘enterprise-architect’. (I’ll still be available to do spot-work commercial consultancy or training for most types of EA, in just about any industry that isn’t finance, banking or insurance – but I will expect to get paid for that, every time.)
3. I won’t offer any more ‘free’ advice on enterprise-architecture or whatever to people who can darn well afford to pay for it. (I’ll still be more than happy to help anyone in any other way – especially any of the upcoming ‘new generation’ of enterprise-architects.)
4. I probably won’t be going to any more ‘enterprise’-architecture conferences, not least because I won’t be able to afford it (unless someone pays at least my expenses, of course).
5. I won’t pander any more to people who to me seem arrogant, bullying, unwilling to think, and otherwise acting in an asinine or irresponsible manner (and yes, there’s been a lot of them I’ve put up with way too often over the past few years…)

Various things I will be doing:

1. I will be doing a lot more research and exploration on ‘big-picture’ themes, developing new types of tools and techniques to tackle those issues in a much more constructive way than as at present; and working with others to develop new toolsets and training-materials for these needs. (It’d be nice if someone else paid for some of that work, but being realistic I wouldn’t expect it, unless anyone else that I’m working with is getting paid for it too.)
2. I will be doing various types of consultancy-work with non-profits, citizen-groups and other organisations that are reaching towards a more constructive world. (Again, it’d be nice if I got paid to do some of that, but I’d only expect it from commercial organisations or government bodies, who should be able to afford to subsidise some of that other work at least.)
3. I will show the EA community and others how to apply those ideas, tools and techniques, within the conventional business context, such as with Enterprise Canvas and the like. (It would likewise be nice if sometimes people would at least offer to pay some of my expenses for doing this, but I do acknowledge that there are too many of us already in this same boat that I am with regard to ‘real-EA’.)
4. I probably will be going to a wide variety of conferences and other gatherings on broader-scope societal-change topics. (As ever, the real limit here will be my probable near-nonexistent income: so if you really want me at your gathering, please do find some way to subsidise my travel-expenses at least.)
5. Much of my work and writing will be a lot more ‘political’ and challenging for a lot more folks: in which case, sorry, but that’s just too bad, because none of us can afford to tolerate outright irresponsibility and abuse any more. (I am very clear about what is and is not abuse in the social context, by the way: see the ‘manifesto‘ on that, from my book Power and Response-ability.)

So that’s it: getting down to work in a different garden – a garden that’s a rather better fit, than that of current mainstream ‘enterprise’-architecture, for this admittedly somewhat-strange kind of toad.

Comments / suggestions / requests, anyone?

Strange things, metaphors: they kind of have a life of their own sometimes…

My mother tells the story of the first house she and my father lived in, some small place way up in the north of England somewhere, back when my elder brother was still a babe-in-arms. The garden they’d inherited there was an overgrown tangle, and they didn’t have much of a clue about gardening, but it seemed a friendly sort of place. It even had its own toad, hiding in the humid dankness underneath a sprawl of strawberry-creepers that had crept in from under the fence from next-door.

It didn’t take long to see why the toad was there. Next-door’s garden was regimented, ordered, everything under control, just so. And all a bit sad, because nothing was thriving there. Beneath all that would-be perfection, the strawberry-patch was a mess of slugs and snails, stunting all the growth; what few fruit were left were all tiny. Yet over on my parents’ side of the fence, those same plants were producing a lush spread of abundant greenery, enough strawberries to keep a grocery going all on its own – and one very happy toad, who’d made very sure that there was not a single slug to be seen.

My mother realised what was happening in the next-door garden, and even offered to send ‘their’ toad over there. But the neighbour was adamant that she wasn’t having “that disgusting creature” in her perfect space: no way! And continued to fret over the fact that her once-imagined idyll was indeed dying…

Hence interesting that I’ve been writing about ‘the toad in the road‘, because I guess that’s what I am myself right now, in this garden we call ‘enterprise architecture’. A toad in the road: right idea, wrong place. Right idea for somewhere, I’d hope. But wrong place for here-and-now. Oh well.

Yeah, enterprise-architecture. You know, this could be a really nice garden? Especially if you got rid of most of this mess of concrete, and let those tired plants in their cracked concrete tubs get their roots down into the dirt at last. Plenty of potential and all that: to get the water flowing again, you might have to take a stick of dynamite to that ugly-looking paddling-pool that the last lot of kids built for themselves, over in the corner called ‘IT-centrism‘, but hey, it’s all here. Why not do it?

You’d wondered where all the wildlife went, but can’t you see there’s not much that can thrive in this kind of desert? A few bugs and wood-lice and a lizard or two, perhaps, but that’s about it. If you want it to work, perhaps plant a few things that can actually grow here: get a bit of shade going an’ all that. There’s a few plants of my own that might grow well here too, if given a halfway-decent chance: the Enterprise Canvas, perhaps, or that notation-agnostic metamodel; or maybe even a bunch of ideas about value-trees, about the service-oriented enterprise and the structure of management – kinda strange-looking at first, I know, but they really do work in this kind of climate. Only a suggestion, of course: it’s your garden, after all.

I’ll have to admit, though, that this isn’t really my kind of place that you’ve got here. Partly my fault, perhaps: I do know I’m kind of an Outsider – always have been, I guess – though I really have tried, I promise you. It’s just I really can’t cope with all the broken-down bits of machinery parked all over the place, and the possessiveness that still pervades everything: they do kinda get in the way all the time. And a bit too grey, too cold, too lifeless: too corporate, I suppose you could say? I’m gettin’ old, I s’pose: I need somewhere that’s a bit more comfortable with having real people around the place, a bit more aware of the anarchic nature of, well, nature itself? I guess I could do with a bit more of the bigger picture, too: and I don’t mind all those mythquakes that we can see coming down the road a ways, though I know they do worry some other folks a lot.

I’ll still be around, of course: if you need me, you know where to find me. And I’m always happy to drop by in your garden – especially if you find a way to bring it more back to life again.

But yeah, I gotta face the facts: this kind of ‘enterprise’-architecture garden ain’t no place for the likes o’ me – and out here at present I’m just another toad in the road.

So it’s “goodbye and thanks for all the slugs”, I guess? – because it seems like it’s time for this old toad to be a-movin’ on.

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