Architect's Core Values: Unity - Progressing, as one mind, toward a common endpoint
Have you ever run in a 3-legged race? You and your tethered partner need to be in sync to complete the race let alone be competitive.
Now think about the average size of the project teams you’ve worked on and imagine trying to rapidly progress to any end point with members of this team tied to each other. Do you typically work with five person teams? Fifteen? Thirty!?!
My point is running a race by yourself is easy compared to when you need to cross the finish line as a team. However, building technical solutions is much more complex than just putting one foot in front of the other and requires multiple team members to deliver. The larger the team the larger the challenge especially considering the finish line may not be clearly in sight and sometimes moves in the middle of the race.
Architects are not exclusively responsible for the team moving as one mind toward the common end point but they shoulder the lion’s share in many cases. An architect who holds unity as a value is naturally going to galvanize the team around a common solution and attempt to clarify the end-goal when the finish line is unclear.
More often than not, architects rely on influence in place of authority to establish vision for application and data landscapes. It doesn’t matter where the vision came from, or if it evolves based upon diverse team perspective but it is typically the architect who has to push for and clarify the vision and keep future solutions inline with the established direction. To be effective at influence the architect needs to bring people together under the common vision.
Building a unified team takes time, can’t be commissioned and may be impossible with some teams. An architect or anyone trying to establish some level of unity among the team members should consider these steps to build unity among their build team.
Embrace diversity:
Realize that diverse opinions should be leveraged as a way to quickly triangulate your approachs. Respect others’ opinions and leverage their diverse perspectives.
Outline options when roadblocks or impasses are met:
Solicit the team for a list of options, weigh out the pros and cost of each and pick the best one.
Leverage conflict:
Be comfortable with and use conflict as a quick way to determine which opinions move you toward your goal.
Maintaining Unity takes effort:
Watch out for the throw-it-over-the-wall mentality. This is a sign of a chink in group’s unity.
If you have comments on how to improve the unity of your team, or have a different perspective, please post a comment.
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