Technology organizations have hundreds of case studies waiting to happen because they are one big paradox. They love process until they don't. They want to build sustainable solutions unless they need it quick and dirty. Every effort is like one big push, pull, tug rugby match.

As architects, we seek a balance in this tug-o-war between advancement of architectural best practices and the inevitable restrictions of resources and cultural inertia.

Welcome to the Politics of Design...

Sell the "Center 60"

Posted by Mike Marshall On Tuesday, February 23, 2010 0 comments
sell the center 60
Almost everything you do as an architect is "selling".   Through your influence, you are selling executive management on architectural strategies and developers on architectural approaches.  You are convincing project managers that your approach is the right one, and business managers that the solution will meet his requirements.  All the fancy design artifacts serve the design need, but for many stakeholders, they are simply marketing collateral.

Sales is a numbers game.  A percentage of the people are going to buy what you are peddling, so reaching out to more folks is the key to increasing your sales.  Every sales presentation has a limited amount of time, and it's tough to touch all of the folks, so you need a strategy.  What's your approach?  When you leave an architectural presentation, how do you make sure that the largest number of people are bought in? 


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Success - Intelligence or Grit?

Posted by Mike Alvarez On Tuesday, February 16, 2010 0 comments

Intelligence or determination…which would you choose to have more of? More intelligence may just make you more of a “brilliant slacker”. More determination could be the missing ingredient to make things happen in your life and career even when the cards don’t fall in your favor.

You've run across the guy in the corner office, or the gal with the lofty title and wondered "what did they do to get there?" Intelligence? Work longer hours? Married the boss’s daughter or maybe better at puckering up than you are?


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The Cost of Losing a Big Hitter

Posted by Mike Marshall On Tuesday, February 09, 2010 0 comments
Losing An Expert
The past 18 months have been pretty tight for your organization.  Revenues were down, budgets were slashed, and every tiny expenditure was re-assessed .  Some people were let go, and the ones that remained understood that they had to dig in and get things done.  Your workloads were increased, and you often had to take on duties that were not in our core responsibilities.  But that's OK.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

But the dawn seems to be breaking a little.  Organizations are starting to expand in targeted areas.  Some strategic projects are starting to get approved instead of delayed as they were 12 months ago.  Departments are starting to look around for a few good people to augment their current teams.  Other organizations are looking to add strong, well-experienced team players.  They're only adding just a few, and they want the cream of the crop.  So they're seeking experts. 

They're Seeking Your Experts.

If your best and brightest have been heads-down working all angles of projects to fill gaps left by recent cutbacks, they've been doing work that is not their core passion.  Business analysis, requirements gathering, design, development, testing, sorting out production problems, and project management is all work that needed to get done, and given the economic climate it had to get done, but your big hitter isn't thrilled to be covering all of those bases.

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Playing Devil's Advocate

Posted by Mike Alvarez On Monday, February 01, 2010 0 comments

Conflict is a natural part of our lives and is a useful tool in finding the best possible solution in the shortest amount of time. Knowing when and where to wield this tool takes some practice as well as awareness of the impact on those around you.

Sometimes, conflict is treated like a game of skill or strategy. Much like a chess match, contestants end up in a mental game of wits trying to outmaneuver their competition. Others take on a gladiator-esque approach, sparring to see who has the stronger personality or will.

Conflict is a very useful tool but might be abused as much as it is used properly. Here are some coaching points to keep in mind to quickly get to an agreed to solution.

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