How can you leverage stakeholder diversity to drive innovation in Business Architecture?

Understanding comes from listening and empathy, two ears one mouth… more like 10 ears. Taking time to understand their perspective, their understanding, their challenges and objectives, their background and drivers, both in their current role and previous ones, as well as what they do outside. Were they an accountant, an engineer and marketer? All of this helps you understand how to motivate them and also which tools and techniques are might work for them. You will almost certainly come with pre-conceptions, as will they. Coming to a common understanding of what problems exist and how they might be solved through the use of business architecture approaches sets the foundation for subsequent success.

Harnessing stakeholder diversity is crucial for innovation in business architecture. I'd start by understanding the varied perspectives and needs of stakeholders. Engaging them actively in co-creation and feedback processes is critical. Effectively managing diverse stakeholders ensures alignment and collaboration. Embracing continuous learning from stakeholders brings valuable insights. Appreciate their unique contributions, recognizing the value they add to innovation. Proactively leveraging this diversity can transform business architecture practices. Pro tip: Use Microsoft Teams or Slack to facilitate diverse stakeholder engagement and management, enhancing innovation in business architecture.

Business Architecture projects are complex. Having as many people's input, buy-in and consensus is the best bet in having a successful project. The people that agreed or even pushed for the project are important, but perhaps even more important are those that didn't agree the project was important to begin with. Even if it benefits them, they may not see it that way. Just because the technical aspects of a project works as designed, doesn't assure it's success. Having as many stakeholders ready, willing, and even better, excited to use a new system will help assure long-term success.

Listening to stakeholder needs, wants, opinions and desires is first step. Then synthesize and re-cap and confirm understanding. This begins the trust building process to ensure your understanding is correct. We can then align the understandings to purpose, goals, objectives and categorize accordingly and how to apply what we learned! to the practice of business architecture (Art and Science)

Engage external stakeholders such as suppliers, partners, and industry experts as they can bring in external best practices, industry trends, and different viewpoints that can drive innovation in business architecture. This will also help the stakeholders to understand how their prospective would contribute to the overall ecosystem of business architecture initiatives.

One of the ways to set the right business architecture foundation is to involve the right business function representative while defining the business capabilities. This serves 2 purposes - it helps tailor fit the business capabilities to organization business strategy, model and at the same time it increases business user involvement, sense of participation in the overall business architecture lifecycle.

When engaging stakeholders - ensure appropriate engagement content and channel. Stakeholder engagement becomes valuable when it’s sincere and intentional - the theoretic tick-box bulk email style of stakeholder engagement does not achieve the objective.

One should ensure that his/her team has a mix of skills, including technical, analytical, creative, and interpersonal skills. The diversity in skillsets always help address a wide range of challenges and opportunities in business architecture.

Imagine involving stakeholders as harmonizing instruments in the evolving symphony of Business Architecture. Invite them to co-create from idea inception to execution—defining problems, brainstorming, and validating solutions. Workshops, surveys, and prototyping become instrumental in weaving their diverse insights into the innovation melody. See this engagement not merely as a process but a collaborative dance, where each stakeholder contributes to rhythmic progression. By tapping into their diverse experiences, turn challenges into opportunities and generate solutions resonating across the spectrum. It's more than participation; it's the dynamic force propelling BA into a forward-moving, harmonious journey of innovation. ???

Involve the right stakeholders, not all stakeholders. In many organisations, especially ones going through organisational design change, you can experience a lot of subversion in your stakeholder engagement and workshops. Pick subject matter experts identified by an engaged and knowledgeable executive, who is in a position to discipline or remove staff focussed on undermining the investigation. Pitch the conversations at the right level. Seek more information about the current state but do not expect participants to have the knowledge to truly revolutionise thinking and contribute to a future state discussion. Your project should have an enterprise architect or strategist to bring that level of insight and education to the project outcome.

In business, while employees physically do the work, it is management that sets the stage and arranges the conditions for the work to be done. That’s the work of management, and, as we are learning, it’s not easy to do the work of management in today’s environment. While the Cloud will be an enabler of innovation, it is not the starting point, instead it is management itself. Management has always been a function of the times it operated in and the outcomes expected of it. Historically you can think about it this way:

Manage the "process" not the "stakeholder as a person". Seek to ENGAGE Stakeholders. Adopt or design a methodology for stakeholder natural engagement based on clear roles, responsibilities, deliverables, and timelines. RACI is beneficial in creating the matrix, but the stakeholders should have experience (internal/employee) and proof of performance (external/contractor) in their area for project success.

All projects have stakeholders, but many enterprise wide engagement will see initiatives span business domains, which in turn could mean conflicting priorities. Do your research on what will be driving your stakeholders during your workshops and be prepared with options to avoid conflict. At the end of the day, if there cannot be consensus, a risk matrix will allow a clear way to prioritise, de-prioritise and manage risk exceptions, be it project, scope or financial.

Always conduct stakeholder analysis irrespective of internal or external to understand their interest, preferences, expectations, concerns, strengths etc. This will help to prioritize the effort and focus on the critical stakeholder to maximize the productivity.

Take care with your communication to participating stakeholders. A single sentence could suggest their staff role is in jeopardy. People do not like change and they fear challenges to their livlihood. Ideally, ensure the project has a talented Change Manager to vet all communications with an authorising Executive. Share realisitic timelines for outcomes rather than positive insights - you will run out of news that maintains engagement. Where you can, instead start sharing insights related to what the future may look like; how the change can help staff do a better job. Share insights to true change to ensure change management is more effective when the transformation begins.

Stakeholders are wonderful for sharing the history of the operation of a business architecture. Dive deep on the 'whys' on where changes were adopted. Was it for innovation or for compliance? Is that compliance still valid? Sometimes, there is no one left in the business to get to the 'why'. Challenge their history and record it in a way it can be measured and assessed. Remember, when you hit the comparison of business architectural needs to vendor functions - too much history and detail will bury the ability to demonstrate competitiveness and drive change.

In my experience, it is crucial to keep learning from stakeholders regarding information needs during the project's life cycle. Stakeholders certainly add a dimension of feedback, which could be critical to the success.

Always build a open and transparent communication channel with the stakeholder as it will help to gather feedbacks, their perspectives, concerns and suggestions. Use surveys and questionnaires to collect structured feedback. Make sure your questions are clear and focused on areas that are important for your stakeholders.

View learning from stakeholders as a tapestry weaving through your Business Architecture journey. It's not just data points; it's a rich mosaic of insights shaping the canvas. Share the vibrant threads of lessons learned, best practices, and challenges faced by stakeholders—turning them into a storybook that enriches your project. Adapt and refine your Business Architecture like a skilled craftsman refining their masterpiece. It's not just about projects; it's about nurturing a garden of innovation. Each stakeholder's input is a unique brushstroke, contributing to the painting of continuous improvement. Picture your project as a living artwork, evolving with the wisdom gleaned from stakeholders, creating a masterpiece of innovation.

Too many times we see projects kick off and do their own thing, only to return two months later and executive sponsors aren't aligned with what is being done. Keep regular communication open, document thoroughly and ask for 2IC's to step in to ensure continuity.

A subset of this is protecting stakeholders. Not everyone wants to be centred, particularly if from different cultural backgrounds (e.g. Pacifica). Just because people are silent doesn't necessarily mean they don't have a perspective that they will share, if they can be made to feel safe in doing so. Be prepared to represent such views as if they were your own and solicit feedback 1 on 1, "offline".

In my opinion, this is the most important aspect which is somehow ignored. you should always keep your stakeholders informed about progress, challenges, their achievements. It will help them feel involved and shows that their input is valued. When milestones are reached or goals are achieved, celebrate them with stakeholders. This not only recognizes their contributions but also fosters a sense of shared success.

The best way to appreciate your stakeholders is to listen and respect their time. By managing expectations early and keeping communication open, regular and honest, they will learn to trust you. It is fine to thank them for their contribution, but a larger rewards is the trust gained through surety their input is valued, listened to and applied to the project.

One of effective ways to improve business architecture in an organization is to conduct design workshop sessions which help refine the business capability maps, mapped to the relevant processes. These workshops, often initiated during large service modernization programs, help stakeholders collaborate, learn and effectively use assets in an on-going basis.

Nodal stakeholders have the most valuable insights into who else holds the special insights into the secret ingredients that make or break the business. Work hard to engage with these people and to learn where the true difference and opportunities in the business lie.

Envision strategically leveraging stakeholders as skilled players in your Business Architecture symphony. Dive into their diversity for innovation, using networks and resources to amplify impact. They're not just contributors; they're catalysts—providing feedback, data, and learnings that refine your project. This strategic dance expands reach and influence. It's not just involvement; it's about maximizing benefits. Utilize tools like referrals or endorsements as notes in the symphony of leveraging stakeholders, orchestrating a harmonious crescendo that maximizes outcomes for your Business Architecture project.

There is often WITFM questions raised from wider audience once a foundation business architecture layer has been setup. In order to address such resistance, increase participation it often helps to create a summary of definitions, how to use, best practices and when to use nuances of the concepts, tools and assets.

It is imperative to learn about the cultural dynamics of the organisation that could impact in a positive/negative way. Identify patterns related to hierarchies and preferences.