Presentation on Enterprise Architecture for the IT University in Copenhagen. Mikkel Brahm explains how complexity sciences help us understand politics and power plays around disruptive and structural changes better than does for example systems theory.

1. Thinking differently about
Technology enabled Business Changes
Part II – Fluidity, Structuring Structures and Ethics
Doctor of Management (Ph.D) Mikkel H Brahm
Head of Architecture, Nordea | Digital Banking
Seeking to Control Enterprise with Architecture
the limits and value of an engineering approach
from the perspective of an Enterprise Architect
http://uhra.herts.ac.uk/handle/2299/17596
Slides available at SlideShare
https://www.slideshare.net/mikkelbrahm

2. Pre-req/assumption: basics understood eg eass
Theme: Fluidity and structuring structures
Conversations person to person
Body language and spoken language
Meaning making
Figuration, power dynamics and social structure
Negotiating social structure
(Exercise: The King enters part 1 and 2)
Gesture - Response in the immidiate interaction
Bringing our formative experiences to bear
Culture and Individual history
Gesture - Response via technological intermediaries
The effect of enactment in person vs. Uniforms, corner office, mahogany desk, rich clothing
Social conventions as socially structuring structure
Mechanisms as conveyor of structuring structure
Rendering structuring more fluid or more rigid
Splitting thought from action
Ethics of splitting thought from action
Alvesson: Stupidity management
Hannah Ahrendt - the banality of evil
Figuration and good and bad - everybody cannot win
Example: Azomiv's three laws - can a robot act in such a way that no human comes to any harm if you include the harmful effects og loss of status, loss of power or just the pain of
envy?
When to stabilize / balance the equation and when to destabilize / unbalance the equation

3. Enterprise architecture (EA) is a discipline for
proactively and holistically leading enterprise
responses to disruptive forces by identifying and
analyzing the execution of change toward desired
business vision and outcomes.
EA delivers value by presenting business and IT
leaders with signature-ready recommendations for
adjusting policies and projects to achieve target
business outcomes that capitalize on relevant
business disruptions.
Gartner, IT Glossary

4. No Universal Theory
Systems Theory explains
mechanical systems
Process Theory explains
humans organizing

5. Complexity
What characterizes this thought style?

6. people have function for each other
we are born into relationships to people upon whom we depend
Elias, Norbert (1991).
The Society of Individuals.
Basil Blackwell.

7. 1 Interdependence enable and constrain our actions
Socially unacceptable behavior can damage relationships

8. 2 We often act habitually / acceptably to garner support.
Provocative actions can lead to renegotiation of norms.

9. Phronesis = wisdom / practical judgment
Knowing what it is right to do = being a virtuous person
Techne = technical knowledge / knowhow
Craftsmanship that can be taught

10. 3 Power dynamics enable and constrain what it is prudent
to say both for subordinates and for the power holders
5 times “Why?” => Socially acceptable rationalization
Scott, John C (1990).
Domination and the Arts of
Resistance - Hidden transcripts.
Yale University Press.

12. 4 Power is never equally distributed. Any leverage can be
used to further one’s interests in any other area.
Jackall, Robert (2010).
Moral Mazes –
The World of Corporate Managers.
Oxford University Press.

13. Linear causality
Culture forms Behaviour OR Behaviour forms Culture
Circular or Transformative causality
Culture forms Behaviour AND Behaviour forms Culture

14. 5 Collaborative innovation hinges on mutual trust
that others can contribute what we ourselves cannot

15. Assumptions underpinning my approach
(contrasted with assumptions underpinning Systems Theory)
1. Autonomy
2. Determinacy
3. Openness
4. Intentionality
5. Agreement
1. Mutual interdependence
2. Self-disciplining and Spontaneity
3. Hidden Transcript and Public Transcript
4. Figuration of relationships with power-differentials
5. Web of Intentionality - Collaboration and Competition

16. Society is a figuration and status etc. is not evenly distributed
=> Everyone cannot win at the same time

17. ENTERPRISE
Intentional process (of doing and organizing business)
emerging from enabling/constraining figurations of relationships always in flux
ARCHITECTURE
Organisation of structuring structures
(including human conventions and mechanisms)

18. Over time we have developed more and more sophisticated
means of protecting ourselves from the heat, cold, etc.
Physical construction – example
When at the mercy of the elements we seek shelter

19. Enforcement – example
Angrily: Were you born in an s-train you stupid idiot?
Social convention – example
When you pass through a door you should close it behind you

20. Norms what it is normal to do aka customs
+ Values how we make value judgements
culture eats strategy for breakfast
Peter Drucker
Culture the way of life / living / organizing

21. Social conventions, like cultures, are the results of negotiations
and could at any time be renegotiated, challenged and changed

22. We use physical constructs to symbolize social convention

23. EXERCISE

24. Prescription = what the script presupposes
from its transcribed actors and authors
Transcription = action hitherto played out by human or
nonhuman actors is translated to a more durable repertoire

25. Baboons do not use baboon-made technology
Social order is re-enacted and re-negotiated every day

26. When you re-iterate your point of view
it can be re-negotiated
When you read someone’s point of view
you cannot as such renegotiate with them

27. Scripted-action lends durability to social conventions
since scripted enactment is not as such a renegotiation

28. Revolutionary change can lead to a lot of pain
both when they fail and when they succeed

29. ‘hidden transcript’ characterizes discourse that takes place
‘offstage’, beyond direct observation by powerholders

30. It entails a refusal to use intellectual resources
outside a narrow and ‘safe’ terrain
Functional stupidity is organizationally-supported lack of
reflexivity, substantive reasoning, and justification

31. Good enough holding of anxiety allows more fluid spontaneous
conversations from which innovation might emerge

32. To unbalance the equation… or to balance the equation
that is the question

33. Splitting thought from action has ethical implications

34. Since Socrates and Plato, we usually call thinking to be
engaged in that silent dialogue between me and
myself. In refusing to be a person Eichmann utterly
surrendered that single most defining human quality,
that of being able to think. And consequently, he was
no longer capable of making moral judgments…
The manifestation of the wind of thought is not
knowledge, but the ability to tell right from wrong,
beautiful from ugly. And I hope that thinking gives
people the strength to prevent catastrophes in these
rare moments when the chips are down.
Hannah Arendt

35. ENTERPRISE
Intentional process (of doing and organizing business)
emerging from enabling/constraining figurations of relationships always in flux
ARCHITECTURE
Organisation of structuring structures
(including human conventions and mechanisms)

36. Fluid conversations
Conversations – and action in general – can take more fluid or more formalised forms
The degree of trust and fluidity greatly impacts for example the ability to arrive at an
innovative solution which cannot be arrived at with only the knowledge of one participant
Structuring Structures
Social conventions have a structuring influence on people’s behaviour
Transcription of scripted-action into a mechanism which imposes prescriptions on it’s users
can influence behaviour in similar ways
Ethics
Imposing a structuring structure on people has ethical implications
Like with so many things, the effects of structuring structures are relational – that is,
they depend upon one’s position in the social figuration

37. Stacey, Ralph D. and Mowles, Chris (2016).
Strategic management and Organisational Dynamics: The
Challenge of Complexity to Ways of Thinking About
Organisations. 7th ed. United Kingdom: Pearson Education.
Stacey, Ralph D (2012).
Tools & Techniques
of Leadership and Management.
Routledge.
Jackall, Robert (2010).
Moral Mazes –
The World of Corporate Managers.
Oxford University Press.
Scott, John C (1990).
Domination and the Arts of Resistance -
Hidden transcripts.
Yale University Press.
Elias, Norbert (1978).
What is Sociology?
Columbia University Press.
Elias, Norbert (1991).
The Society of Individuals.
Basil Blackwell.
Latour, Bruno (2005).
Reassembling the Social – An introduction
to Actor-Network-Theory.
Oxford University Press.
Mead, George Herbert (1934).
Mind, Self, & Society.
The University of Chicago Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1977)
Outline of a Theory of Practice.
Cambridge University Press
Scott, John C (1998).
Seeing like a State – How Certain Schemes to Improve
the Human Condition Have Failed.
Yale University Press.
Guenther, Milan (2013).
Intersection – How Enterprise Design bridges the gap
between Business, technology and People.
Elsevier.
Ries, Eric (2013).
The Lean Startup – How today’s Entrepreneurs use Continuous
Innovation to create radically successful Businesses.
Crown Business.