There’s a satisfying snap when a puzzle piece clicks into place. As each piece lines up the picture starts to take shape and become clearer with each successive match. As you get a better feel for the pieces and the picture, solving the puzzle becomes faster as each bit of detail becomes more noticeable. The familiar patterns guide where they should fit.
As leaders we’re challenged to make sense of a legacy puzzle that in many organizations span twenty or more years, while also being expected to be on the leading edge of innovation and adoption of the newest technological advances. We look at the mass of previous initiatives and marvel at what used to be considered state-of-the-art, and how all the previous well-intended projects ended up contributing to the same mess.
There is no throwing up our hands at the difficulty because the success and future of our organization depends on us solving this puzzle. The pieces are all there, but they’re just not fitting together in a clear picture. Even when we can see a path forward, we’re dragged down by the cost of the legacy tangle we inherited (or were even part of creating).
The technological advances and the maturation of patterns over the last twenty years have combined to finally give us a way out of the quagmire. It’s now possible to evolve our way out, detangling our systems, and moving to a plane of constant innovation and forward progress. It's about not just changing our enterprise’s technology landscape, but actually changing the behavior of our enterprise itself.
The “Frictionless Enterprise” vision came from looking at the sheer magnitude of the transformative activity of the last twenty years and still seeing organizations spinning in place. Going fast but going nowhere and finding it difficult to get traction and maintain momentum once established.
Being a momentum generator and having been called in to be a transformative force at many organizations gives a lot of great perspective. I wrote “Frictionless Enterprise” having the benefit of harvesting the best patterns from the most successful and transformative engagements as a cohesive framework. It all works together and is additive. Each strategic piece of the puzzle has a multiplying positive effect on the outcome.
I looked at the organizational culture of a company and how the only way to truly change the organization is to change the environment itself. To structurally align with that of value delivery, innovation, and winning in the market. That is the structure we want to become the natural “way” of the company.
These days it really should be the default, and yet, we’ve seen many organizations try to mechanically check all the boxes but fail to successfully realize the goal. “Frictionless Enterprise” hits on the major foundational rocks, as well as pulling at the edges where those small subtle changes make all the difference. The book gives first-hand accounts of things that have worked and things that have gotten in the way of success, and importantly, demonstrated paths you must avoid.
We wanted the book to be practical and applicable. Not just a list of “do this, and don’t do that”, but getting down to the underlying “why” when you do or don’t do something and the real implications of those choices. We also wanted to make a statement about what good actually looks like and how you can and should be raising the bar for yourself, your organizations, and your partners.
We’ve seen how over-rotation on one dimension can have lasting and detrimental effects on a business. Outsourcing strategic differentiators, over-investing in commodities, re-solving solved problems, and betting the future of the company on single, big-bang initiatives – these are common barriers hiding in plain sight that impede company’s ability to change.
This book will help you re-focus, and provide a common language and model for thinking about technology in your enterprise. “Frictionless Enterprise” is a shared pattern language of the business and technology so we can ask ourselves, “what’s the most cost effective, and strategically aligned way for us to solve this problem? How do we do it on our terms, stay in control of our technological destiny, and begin to truly use innovation as a sustainable driving force for our organization in the market.”
Download “Frictionless Enterprise” and start snapping your pieces in place.
