Architecture Eats Strategy

by | Oct 29, 2021 | Change

architecture

Yesterday, I picked up Monty Don’s ‘The Complete Gardener’ from the library. It’s full of gardening advice crafted in gentle way of stories of experience. Not ‘this is what you should do’ but rather ‘here’s what I’ve done, why, and the outcome’. However, for me the most impactful aspect of the book so far are the updated pictures. Here’s what it looked liked 20 years ago and what it looks like today.

20 years ago, most of the structure was present albeit in different forms. Paths, boundaries, many of the trees, and so on. Present and accounted for. The boundaries remain the same, but the trees are much bigger. The paths have remained the same shape, but most are no longer grass. Interestingly, Monty notes that when they started filming ‘Gardeners’ World‘ in the garden, most of the paths had to grow in width.

When talking about organisational change, it is common to discuss how ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’. And while this is true and culture is critical to understand, when it comes to digital transformation, structure might even be more important than culture. And structure is likely called architecture. Just like the key structural elements of Monty Don’s garden have remained the same for over 20 years, so too does digital architecture often remain the same. As Tim says, Architecture Eats Culture Eats Strategy, which we forget to our peril.

Photo by Wolfgang Frick

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