What is your most pervasive work-related thought on your commutes to work? Is it what you didn’t get done the day before? Your boss? The bewilderment on why simple challenges turn into multiple meetings and bureaucracy? Do you get amped up thinking about what the day holds or is it just another day in the office? Take fifteen seconds and really think about it…
We’re living in interesting times (if you consider turbulence interesting) and I’ve found myself contemplating what makes me and the people around me “tick”. We’re all faced with increasing challenges at work but I often find my determination amplify as I go to work in the morning. Almost like prepping for a competitive sport: determining what our game plan is or establishing success criteria for the day.
After some contemplation, I believe it is my core architectural values that drive my behavior and the behavior of my architect staff and peers. Our core values are our guidepost. You might be thinking: “Great! He finally figured out the basic fact that values drive behavior”. If so, you might be overlooking the single most important element that galvanizes and motivates your team.
Core values are the reason we bring our “a-game” each day. The reason we fight day after day on the same issues such as standards or patterns. The reason we resist the urge to accept the path of least resistance when we’re sure it jeopardizes future enhancements. The reason we strive to balance the time, cost and quality of solutions with an eye on the horizon.
I believe great architects share similar values. Values that bind us together and keep us on track. Values that are as much a part of us as the color of our hair or the stride in our step.
Please join me and help establish the Architect’s Core Values. I'll reveal my list over the next few posts. More importantly, I would love to see what you think drives us to give 110% each and every day.
Values:
- Impact: the desire to create something great.
photo: IdeaMill
Be an advocate of the system over a agent for either the technology or the whims of the customer. May times the Architect is in a unique position to see through both the clouds that wrap developers into "customer asked for it, gotta figure out how to do it" and the customer "I would like something LIKE this (but maybe not THIS, can you guide me?)"