In this ‘Digital Age’, digital natives and start-ups find this environment natural but for businesses established long before digital (incorporating just about most of the players in our industry) adjusting to this new world takes a little more effort. Business Architecture@AXA exists to anticipate change and help deliver transformation at a quality and pace expected by its customers. To be successful, AXA’s Business Architects need to be forward looking, agile and highly effective communicators. Business Architects are expected to be knowledgeable in any business area they are asked to work in or to learn quickly!

A good example of a challenge facing most organisations is; ‘how do we drive value from the sheer volume of data available in an ethical, compliant and legal way?’ Using the tools and skills at their disposal, Business Architects must understand ‘Big Data’ from many viewpoints:

• How could better and more structured data improve the business?
• What additional information security and compliance risks does ‘Big Data’ bring?
• What technology exists to harness ‘Big Data’?
• Which vendors are leading the market?
• How will richer data add value?
• Do we already have the capability that we can reuse in the business?
• Do we need the capability in multiple places?
• What is the optimal Target Operating Model for managing our data?

In fact, these types of questions are relevant across the organisation for all types of capabilities.

The role of the Business Architect@AXA is to help the business find the right questions and to answer them in support the transformational design that will deliver its vision. But Business Architecture cannot replace the expertise needed in business transformation, no more than an architect, in the traditional sense of the word, can design, source materials and build an entire building on their own. An architect’s role is simply to get the best outcome with the resources available by translating someone’s vision into a reference document (a blueprint) that all other experts work from.

In our ‘Big Data’ example, Business Architecture@AXA is at the heart of building a data target operating model using Information Security, Compliance, Enterprise and Solution Architecture, Procurement and Operations to translate the vision into a business blueprint capable of driving the change that will not just keep pace with customer expectations but exceed them.

Business Architecture plays a vital role in supporting AXA deliver change at the pace expected by today’s consumers. And it doesn’t stop there. As Business Architecture@AXA matures, its vision is to be ahead of consumer expectations so that AXA can spin up and scale the type of agile, innovative change currently only seen in digital natives and start-ups.

Geoff Grace Business Architect AXA UK Geoff Grace is Business Architecture & IT Strategic Planning Manager, AXA Insurance

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I came across the infographic above via the NHS Leadership Academy @NHSLeadership on Twitter, written and designed by Anna Vital, Information Designer and author of many fine infographics.

It got me thinking about busy business change professional, and how they have to constantly juggle multiple priorities, finding their time eaten away by ‘stuff’ that demands their attention.

So in this article I offer a few observations on the headline statements in Anna’s infographic, as they apply to anyone managing or directing business change.

I’ll start right away by saying that I won’t cover all the strands mentioned by Anna: I am not saying that paying attention to clothes, food or the human body are unimportant, but anyone who knows me will quickly confirm that I am not the go-to guy for advice on those.

The other strands speak to me more directly about specific challenges facing those trying to bring about successful change in their organisations or in society.

We are too easily lured by the appeal of technology – to make communication ‘easier’, to organise activities, create schedules and to prioritise tasks.  We see change professionals become servants of tools, spending unwarranted amounts of time finessing their plans, entering data, producing reports.

It’s time to go ‘lo-tech’: keep the tools simple (post-it notes, not electronic ones), keep the process intimate (workshops, walk-throughs, face-to-face sharing and challenging of ideas) and walk away from a systems-dominated approach, where you run the change process from behind a desk.  One still needs thorough good process tools and a systematic method, but time spent developing a human-oriented approach with your stakeholders will always pay dividends.

Try this little thought experiment: by some devious means, I can double, triple or even quadruple the amount of time available for you to do your work. In this experiment we shall also miraculously preserve your free time for leisure, social and family interests.  Now, did that solve the problem? Did you manage to get all the work done?  Highly unlikely, as we are all familiar with Parkinson’s Law which indicates that we never end up with enough time to complete every single task.  We constantly fool ourselves that it is not so, despite the regular frustration of an expanding to-do list.

It’s time to get ruthless, selecting and prioritising work through the three filters of

• strategic alignment (‘to what extent does this effort help take me in the direction desired for the business?’)
• value (‘how much will this effort help us to realise benefit from the change?’) and
• collaboration (‘how will this effort help foster support and engagement with the change stakeholders?’)

In making choices, it is important to think in terms of OUTCOMES, not outputs.  A fine, shiny new process or system going live might impress at a superficial level, but we must not be charmed by that.  We can do this best by visualising what we want the future state of the business to look like – in the most concrete terms possible – to look like, and then challenging how a given task contributes to that future.

There is another significant aspect to this, particularly pertinent to anyone working in change: you cannot move the mountain on your own.  Actively seek out ways to share the workload, collaborate with others, delegate – these are all avenues for increasing stakeholder engagement by altering their role from that of passive bystander to player in the game.  And to paraphrase President Lyndon B. Johnson’s rather crude advice for dealing with awkward stakeholders opposed to change (in his case, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover): get them more closely involved.

Doing easiest things first can be good for personal and group morale, by producing that feeling of achievement: that’s why they are called ‘quick wins’.  We are also familiar with the dopamine rush that comes when we finally finish a piece of work.  It can give us momentum to work on greater things.  However, too often we see people get distracted by the easy-to-do.  Parkinson’s much lesser-known Law of Triviality warns against the tendency to focus on the simple, rather than the important.

My own pet hate, inefficient meetings, is highlighted here: too often we disrupt the productivity of large numbers of people with poorly conceived and executed meetings.  The paradox here is that we all know the Golden Rules of meetings, yet we persistently ignore them.  I have a rule of thumb: if I want to achieve a successful outcome from a meeting or workshop then I should expect to spend at least three times the scheduled meeting time on preparation, including informal networking to pave the way.  I should also expect there to be as much time involved again in follow-up actions.  This is a great reminder to me to think carefully about the purpose and conduct of meetings, and to be very wary of a colleague cramming many meetings into one day!

Anna’s infographic also highlights the notion that perfectionism is a vice, not a virtue.  ‘Good enough’ means exactly that – any more quality is unnecessary.  Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, a driving force in the development of radar in Britain prior to the Second World War propounded a “cult of the imperfect”, which he stated as “Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes.”

Some important messages here:

• Visualise the business outcome (not just the end product!) and then you and the change team and stakeholders are more likely to move toward achieving it. It’s the same principle used by athletes.
• Start with something that is not fully thought through. There are two reasons for doing this: firstly, we are less attached to ideas and strategies that we have spent only a little time conceiving.  Secondly, if our first attempt to articulate a direction is imperfect, even deliberately imperfect and controversial, then they will provoke challenge and allow different opinions to emerge.  This is pure manna from heaven to the effective change manager – in these early conflicts and differences a more complete picture emerges, and groups can achieve informed and conscious compromise agreements.
• Similarly, a decision – any decision – will produce energy; indecision kills momentum, and in a change environment momentum is crucial to develop and maintain: when change loses momentum, it loses credibility in the eyes of the stakeholders.
• Finally, Anna’s advice about ‘writing to the author’ reminds me of a fundamental truth about change: it is not achieved on the executive floor, but rather down in the departments where people act and think differently. Followers of change follow a local leader, not some anonymous and distant senior manager.  These departments have their change champions, their pioneers and risk-takers.  These are the people who will translate the abstract goals into innovative practices.  Such authors of change must be acknowledged, frequently and generously.

In conclusion, for the busy change professional (at whatever level in the organisation) needs to be able to hold up a mirror every now and then, and look at their habits and behaviours.  Some are effective, and need to be reaffirmed; some are less helpful, and need to be sharpened up and refocused to productive ends; some are just plain wrong, and kill productivity – these need to be cut out of the weekly routine.

What advice do you have about becoming a more effective and productive change manager?  Let me know your thoughts.

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Question

I work in the power generation sector. I’ve already got more than enough work on my plate, and now I’ve been asked to take on the role of ‘Accountable Executive’ for a big project in the Operations area of the business!  I don’t even know what that job title means, and even more confusingly, my boss now refers to me as the ‘Project Sponsor’!

What does it mean for me?  Is this something I can fit into my (non-existent) spare time?

Our response

This is a situation we see all too often.  It’s a great opportunity, but surrounded by many pitfalls for the unwary, so proceed carefully.

Firstly, know the full significance of your role.
The term Accountable Executive means ‘exactly what it says on the tin’: you own the project! You are accountable for the business success of the project (including whether the investment in the project results in realisation of planned savings or other benefits).  This means the ‘buck stops’ with you if the project fails to achieve its business goal.  No point in hiding behind the project manager or anyone else – it’s you they’ll come looking for if things go awry!

The term Project Sponsor is completely interchangeable with Accountable Executive (don’t ask me why, probably it’s to do with our apparent compulsion to invent new words for old concepts – probably to give the impression of original thinking).

So get to know exactly what the project is trying to achieve.  Make sure you know (and have challenged) the problem or starting point that makes the organisation want to invest in the project in the first place.  Get clarity and agreement on the business outcomes required (leaner process? better process? new line of business?) by the key stakeholders.

Beware of long ‘laundry lists’ of problems to be solved, or outcomes to be achieved.  Everyone wants to be a stakeholder in your project, and they all have an angle – something they want out of it.  You must be ruthless in cutting out all that are not central to the project mission.  In fact, the more concise you can be, the more precise you are likely to be.  Nothing speaks more of lazy or loose thinking than a project briefing note that goes on at length, meaning different things to its different readers.

You are now central to the governance of the project: in a nutshell you must make decisions about the strategy and outcomes to be achieved, and ensure that the business and the project team are interacting appropriately (most times this means ensuring that stakeholders are pulling in the same direction!).  Someone once described this as ‘Making sure the project is achieving the right things’: on the other hand, the project manager’s job is to ensure that the project is being ‘done right’.

It is important for you to be completely comfortable with your project’s strategy and business rationale because your job is to help the project manager drive the project in the right direction.

 Secondly, know the limits of your role.

You are NOT the supervisor of the project manager, nor the ‘project expert’.  You do not have to check up on their work, review their detailed schedules, or have them account to you for their timekeeping.  As mentioned above: you set the business direction, and help them drive the project to that destination.  So don’t be tempted to ‘take over’.  It is sheer madness to try to take the steering wheel out of their hands: you will almost certainly not know what you are doing

It’s a partnership of different, but equally vital roles.  You and the project manager have something in common: you both want her (or him) to succeed!  Therefore your job is to offer help and support as needed.  This means ‘political support with awkward stakeholders, gaining agreement in highly charged situations, not offering expert technical advice.  So whilst checking up, ask supportive questions, like ‘What’s your biggest obstacle at the moment?’, ‘What do you need from me?’ or ‘How can I help?’

Thirdly, spend your time on the project wisely.
Here are a few tips for spending what little time you have to the best effect:

1. Make sure that the project you are sponsoring is desirable: it should have stakeholder buy-in, a including a willingness from them to provide resources; a sound business rationale, with realistic benefit projections; a business priority that means it is less likely to be pushed to one side when the next ‘urgent problem’ comes along. .
2. Make sure your project is doable, including appropriate resource allocation, a realistic budget, and timescale and reasonable expectations about scope and quality.  Beware of ‘aspirational’ project targets, which are just an excuse for another ‘pie in the sky’ mission impossible.
3. Keep networking with the stakeholders: you can reach places the project manager will never be invited into, so speak about your project, encourage support, listen to problems, seek solutions.
4. Focus on resolving business level issues, including shifting roadblocks to progress, and let the project manager look after the detail.
5. Talk to the project manager frequently. Get him (or her) to help you understand the business implications of the technical issues they discover.  Get them to translate the arcane language of project management into plain English, and carry the important messages of the project to the Board and other senior management with whom you come into contact.

SO, it’s a big role…but somebody has got to do it!

It’s also very rewarding, and the big prize for you is (as long as you do it well) you will grow your reputation as a change champion, and it is well-known that success in change projects is a fast-track for sponsors to gaining promotion and even more accountability within their organisations.

There is much more to say on this topic: if you would like to find out more, please post a comment, or contact us at consulting@citi.co.uk.

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