Business Transformation - Does it mean changing the culture?

I'd like to think that when a business is changing something fundamental, trying to transform, that it means something cultural will shift. This idea of Business Transformation is fascinating to me as it takes an act of 'looking into the mirror' long enough to see yourself looking back and saying it's time for a change in my business. I found my time in companies that maybe we are doing unnecessary things or investing time for the wrong reasons and ultimately not helping the organization we really serve. 

I've seen many Business Transformation, Technology Transformation, Delivery Transformation efforts go on and take years to get in place just to see the same basic issues. I mean that the reason for a large transformation effort may get underway as the technology or the business is in some way the problem, when it really is communication or how requests are formed that may drive the real opportunity for improvement. 

More to come on this thought. Do you find yourself thinking about how to find satisfying results in your business. Maybe, it's how we make requests or how we agree to things that is truly driving our business and our lives??

If this conversation interests you, feel free to reach out to us at:

benbarbro@strategyrc.com

Thank you for reading!

Ben Barbro

Enterprise Architecture Practitioner and President of Strategic Resource Consulting, LLC

Improvement and Why Pictures Help

I've thought that the best way to get agreements between people is to capture how something would work. There is more to understanding the efforts of others beyond pictures, it takes some explaining of how they do their jobs and what is the value in what they do. I found this picture of Walt Disney's Production Company from 1943 and they built a flow of how work gets done.

Back in 1943, we didn't have computers but there still was a need to understand how a matrix of production and management came together to execute on a big production. The practice of modeling this together is called Enterprise Architecture. In today's world of technology, we have to consider the Business Processes, the Data, the Applications, and Tech Platforms you consider to connect to producing value. 

If you want to build a picture of your organization and the connected relational models, engaging your organization to gather this information is a healthy way to discover things that don't work well.  This can also give you insight to new capabilities that will give your team an edge that will require change. I'm sure in most roles within an organization, we know pretty quickly which things 'keep you up at night' or would be convenient if they stopped. Part of Enterprise Architecture is also mapping the governance processes in organizations to show how those support the overall organization. 

Thanks for your thoughts on this! I'm new to blogging and welcome your thoughts on Enterprise Architecture or how to engage your team in improving.

Thank you for reading!

Ben Barbro

Enterprise Architecture Practitioner and President of Strategic Resource Consulting, LLC

Removing Ambiguity: Why it's a good idea.

Too often, we proceed to do work without knowing the full needs from our customers. The need to have an iterative dialogue to get clear on what is required is the secret to getting clear on what defines success. Using models to demonstrate function and to gain agreement can improve relationships between your team and your customers.