I was speaking with a software vendor this week and he said something that made me stop and think. He said, "Diversity in your workforce is a big contributor to happy customers." Architecture groups are usually small, and made of a few members with some stronger analysis skill sets. In a small group like that, when you start to get overloaded with work, it's easy to think, "If we just had another guy like Ted..." or "If I could just clone Susan..." Under this mindset, all too often, an architecture group can fall into a trap where all the personnel are very similar - same approaches, same backgrounds, or even same age. This can feel comfortable, but it may be holding back your relationships with other project team members. It may be leaving some of your internal customers feeling uncomfortable.
I understand that diversity in any group is a good thing. Different people with different backgrounds develop unique solutions to a problem. The diversity can breed innovation, and the cross-pollination of skills can build a stronger group as a whole. There are plenty of other well-documented angles on why a diverse workforce is better, but I've never tied the concept directly to customer satisfaction.
In this case, the vendor was speaking about circumstances where people often like to work with similar types of people. Birds of a feather will flock together, if you will. An extroverted developer may like it when they have an extroverted architect. Business analysts with a military background may interact more easily with an architect who has the same. A project manager prefers instant messages to phone calls - and appreciates an architect who is a "bing!" away. Working with a compatible architect can make the customer's experience more pleasurable and improve his satisfaction.
The point is that if you have a diverse set of architects, you are more likely to have one that can easily relate to a member of the project team. This similarity helps to promote a better working relationship between the team at large and your architects. Anything that leads to better communications and understandings on the project team is well worth the effort. So next time, you put on a new architecture team member think about picking someone who can bring more diversity to your organization. Your customer's will thank you for it.
photo: curious expeditions
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