The Empowerment Architecture

#enterprisearchitecture #empowerment

Empowerment (source: Merriam-Webster):

1.????To promote the self-actualization or influence of?

2.????To enable

The Big Rocks of Our Time

As perhaps most of us would agree, we passed through a bruising election cycle last year, marked by a number of concerns that people all across the country highlighted, but much of it lost in the din of the campaign itself. And then we elected a new President, and the hope was that the country would now turn a new chapter. As we usually expect from an election, the idea (and hope) was to set the politics aside, and instead focus on the concerns of the people. Why did the American citizen vote for the candidate who became the 45th President of the United States? What are the most immediate and pressing issues that require the new administration’s attention and resolution?

Well, we are now caught up in a fresh wave of discontent, fear, uncertainty, anger, bewilderment, and a host of other emotions. Very little positive outlook for the future, but lots of divide amongst our people that more and more seems to be centered on hate and intolerance towards one another. Clearly, this is an unsustainable environment for the country and its citizens to thrive in and prosper. And yet, in this intense period in our history, the people still continue to voice their major concerns as they have been doing for several decades now – immigration reform, education, healthcare, infrastructure, better paying jobs, and criminal justice reform, just to name a few. These are what we may think of as being the big rocks in the room, some of which have never really been addressed adequately so far.

But the question that comes to my mind is, is there a deeper desire, or a more obvious objective that the average citizen is aiming to fulfill, and that is somehow being masked by all the complexities of the current political and economic debate?

I sincerely believe it is empowerment that we all seek ultimately for ourselves – the ability to take control of our lives and our destinies, and make the most of our skills, knowledge and opportunities to become successful – not just for ourselves, but for the country that we all call Home. Empowerment, if we think about it, is almost visceral in nature, and is an innate craving that exists in every single one of us. One might even suggest that self-dignity/self-respect and empowerment are really two sides of the same coin.

The big rocks are then merely stepping stones towards that universal objective of being empowered to do the big and small things in our lives. Indeed, empowerment will lead us to some very basic goals that we all seek irrespective of our political affiliation, ideology, faith, religion, social beliefs, and even national boundaries. The big rocks then should somehow combine and deliver that sense of empowerment that we all seek. Before we move on to examining what these big rocks are and how they may come together in some logical way, it might be worthwhile to think about this assertion that I make:

Personal and shared empowerment allows us to take advantage of our individual Liberties and Rights to the fullest potential, and thereby helps us achieve the common good for our people.

Tier 1 Building Blocks – The Foundation

The building blocks (aka the people’s primary areas of concern) may be divided into 2 categories to better understand the relationship between them, and how one category might influence the other. Note that this is not a clear black & white separation of concerns as it were, but simply a method that allows us to compartmentalize our thinking in a useful way. Also note that there may be other concerns out there as well, but only those that seemed to figure prominently in our current collective consciousness are represented here and in the next section. The following figure illustrates the 6 major tier 1 building blocks that one may think of as the Foundation for empowerment.

So why would these aspects constitute the foundation? Well, simply because these aspects are probably the most basic of the needs of the average person. Whether it is the hi-tech professional in our coastal cities, or the coal miner in West Virginia, or the steel mill worker in Ohio, or a doctor working in a small town in Texas, health, the environment, progressive education to acquire future skillsets, the right nutrition that is affordable, simplified and streamlined immigration, and a free and fair justice system is of paramount importance to make their (and our) lives truly worth living.

I mean, of what use is it to preach to these folks the importance of infrastructure or regulatory reform or electoral college reform when these folks are worried sick all the time about their health (or how they are going to pay for it) or wondering whether their jobs will disappear before their kids have completed college or whether they are going to be kicked out of the country and separated from their families in short order?! These noble ideas will tend to be rendered abstract and even irrelevant against the more practical and tangible problems that Americans presently face everyday!

The idea here is to essentially set the correct foundation in place just so we eliminate some of the basic concerns at least to some extent, which would in turn then free up the individual’s mind to focus on a different set of concerns that will actually enable the individual’s sense of empowerment – the tier 2 building blocks i.e. the Enablers.

Tier 1 Building Blocks set the platform for current & future generations to leverage the Tier 2 Building Blocks.

Tier 2 Building Blocks – The Enablers

The Enablers do exactly that – they do the job of enabling the empowerment of the individual, but they necessarily need the foundation to be in place to do their job effectively. In essence, they really do combine with the Foundation to deliver that sense of empowerment to the individual.???

With the foundation in place, we can now talk about the “cool stuff” that will liberate us to freely and courageously explore / discover our hidden strengths, venture into the unknown, and advance as a single nation into the 21st century. Areas of concern such as tax reform, infrastructure, R&D, innovation, regulatory reform and electoral reform will acquire a whole new meaning and significance in the average citizen’s life. The related debates will invite active interest and involvement from a vast majority of the populace because they will now realize that their individual and collective empowerment is directly tied to these reforms. And that will bring people together, and the true power of the democratic process will bring to bear.

The Foundation and the Enablers combine together to deliver on the promise of common & shared aspirations, and the collective empowerment of our people in the 21st century and beyond.

Bringing it all Together – The Empowerment Architecture

The Empowerment Architecture is a simple structure that allows us to view and analyze the BIG picture in which the Foundation and the Enablers combine together in harmony, and deliver the end goals of our people.?

This illustration is not meant to imply a strict top-down hierarchy. These building blocks can impact one another at the same level in both tiers. And there may be specific dependencies between a certain tier 1 block and a tier 2 block. For example, one can argue that infrastructure will be a key enabler for education reform. All these possibilities are legitimate candidates for further analysis and debate. But that’s really the point of even putting together a graphic like this one – to harvest that critical thinking amongst all of us, and inject some semblance of analytical rigor into these conversations about what do we need to do, and how do we go about doing it.

Now here’s the interesting part – as it turns out, its not even empowerment in and of itself that people desire, but it would be those things that are realized by way of empowerment that people dream about. And what are those things? A healthy life (which in turn makes for a healthy nation), appropriate and relevant skills for well-paying 21st century jobs, an agile and a high-performance workforce, financial independence, and above all, a stress-free & enhanced quality of life! Shouldn’t be too much to ask for, should it?

None of us wants to be a dependent, or survive on welfare, or live in a welfare state. We will together arrive at that desired place of individual freedom, fulfillment and shared prosperity through a series of small, deliberate & coordinated steps.

In Conclusion…

The USA prides itself in being the “richest and most powerful nation” on the planet. Our politicians waste no opportunity to claim that America is the only indispensable nation in the world. And yet, here we are quite literally at the crossroads of our destiny as One Nation Under God. We have the funds, the people power, and other resources to do the right thing. All we need to do is muster some political will and a sense of common & shared purpose to make it happen. We are already seeing this through recent people marches, heavy turnouts in town hall meetings, and we are certainly witnessing our elected representatives being put on notice. But just resisting or creating chaos is not enough to alter the political environment. It must be necessarily complemented by a positive vision and a clear message to get our folks to move in the same direction, steadfastly and in unison.

Our generation, when truly empowered, will act as catalysts to help others rise. This will have a multiplier effect as succeeding generations will be more empowered than the previous ones. I truly hope that we can rally around a common architecture (or at least a theme), and a companion process of sorts to solve the big problems of our generation, and gift ourselves that sense of empowerment that we all pursue. This in turn will set the path forward for our kids and grandkids to tread on and do even better than us in the years and decades to come. As a dad to two kids, that’s what I aspire for more than anything else…how about you?