It began with an octopus; wandered into an accidental remark about “a flocking of Boyds”; and then drifted off somewhat sideways from there. But seems that this crabwise shuffle may be leading somewhere useful – for my current explorations of …

Sensemaking and the flocking of Boyds Read more »

Following on from the previous post ‘Sensemaking: Into the void‘, what’s a good everyday analogy or example on how to develop our skills in sensemaking and strategy? In particular, how to understand, apply and use the ‘sense, make-sense, decide, act‘ …

Sensemaking: Down in the dungeons Read more »

Given that I’m reframing my work here as ‘maker of tools for change’, it seems worthwhile to republish from my now long-defunct Sidewise blog this 2010 post on some on the realities of change that must be acknowledged and addressed if …

On innovation, foundations, scaffolding and Portakabins Read more »

What do architects do? And why? At this point we’d usually reach out for some apposite metaphor… And yes, by far the most common metaphor is ‘boxes and lines’, or ‘boxes and arrows’. If we take the most stereotyped, ‘boxy’ view …

Architecture as boxes, lines and glue Read more »

Given the responses to my previous post ‘Guess I could do with some help here…‘, seems it’d be useful if I clarify a bit more what kind of help I most need. (Or we need, rather, as an industry and …

More on that enterprise-architecture ‘help needed’ Read more »

A great conversation yesterday evening with a former colleague from Sydney, Robert Phipps. Rambling over a range of enterprise-architecture themes: about the distinctions between organisation and enterprise, about the role of values in the defining vision (or ‘venture’, as he …

Enterprise-architecture as vectors Read more »

Whilst at the AE-Rio 2011 enterprise-architecture conference, I had the pleasure of sitting through yet another presentation by John Zachman. (He’s the only presenter I know who can get away with reading every word of every slide on a very …

Why 'engineering the enterprise' doesn't work Read more »