影响成功建筑师的秘密

影响技能

对于任何想要发展更好的影响技能的人

You designed a great technical solution, you even figured out how it makes financial sense for your customers...

So why is nobody listening?

Preface

技术架构是在许多技术项目中可重复使用的底层设计和服务集。

Architecture examples include physical networks, middleware integration services, standardised data, standard software services and components, common system designs, standardised technology products such as office tools, operating systems and database tools.

技术架构师一起工作技术adership and delivery teams (CIOs, day-to-day Operations and Software Development).

他们通过提供服务提供技术投资的价值：

Technology Standards

EA团队定义所有应用和基础架构的架构和技术标准。

Project Consultancy

EA团队可以积极参与开发项目，以确保架构合规性和组件重用。

Application Integration

The EA team define integration strategies to ensure that legacy systems will coexist with newer.

Research & Development

Research emerging technologies to develop a competitive business advantage.

Introduction

如果您在负责控制贵公司的企业架构的中央团队中，您可能会想知道为什么有些公司的开发团队拒绝使用您的深思熟虑的建筑设计。

为什么任何开发团队都应该以最好的方式提供系统，他们知道如何，使项目和风险延迟交付，只是为了满足盛大的设计？为什么有人想在自己的利益之前把架构放在？

Teams will adopt architecture only when architects have built enough trust and influence.

Researchers working in the fields of organisational development and in communication science understand the secrets to building influence and trust.

This article shows how architects can use some of these same techniques to improve the rate at which development teams adopt enterprise architecture.

背景

所有员工都学习在职业中青睐的工作实践（或组织文化）。作为一个建筑师，您可能会以牺牲社交网络为例，您可以发现自己专注于技术实践。

设计合适的技术解决方案和建立强大的价值主张通常不足以实现成功。成功往往基于影响力，并通过沟通技巧，增加信任和避免普通陷阱建立了影响。

Step 1: Improve your Communication Skills

良好的沟通意味着对齐四个项目

内容，媒体，传播者和观众。不匹配的任何单项都可以使沟通无效，而且反过来，减少有影响力的机会。您可以将建筑内容视为企业架构设计。

您可以提供许多不同媒体的内容，例如：

一对一的会议
telephone conversations
小组演示文稿
举报
幻灯片
海报
websites
视频

Range of Communicators

There is a wide range of possible communicators too: architects, business leads, actors, professors, lead developers and technology vendors to name a few.

Audiences may at different times consist of business end-users, business leaders, developers, technology management, technology operations or even non-technical people.

Getting this right is a rewarding experience. I have seen business sponsors describing the architecture of their projects. Of course, they may not understand all the details, but their voice can be a powerful influence.

Technology vendors will often be pleased to present their products and plans directly to your developers.

Getting this wrong can be disastrous. Imagine sending a context-free set of project slides to an audience consisting of a mixed group of businesspeople, architects and developers, it is likely that no one will get want they want.

Step 2: Increasing Trust

增加你对这八个信任原则的关注。您可能会发现您已经在日常工作实践中使用了其中一些。在这种情况下，尝试一些其他的。

Liking

强调友谊的价值，赞扬积极方面与批评过去的选择的重要性。我们每个人都有朋友，你会认识到这些关系如何适应偶尔的“灾难”。

Reciprocity

Seek consistent engagement and clear communications from others. This principle suggests they will provide the same in return. How many of us bemoan the quality of document from project teams, and yet provide only scant documentation of our architectures to them?

社会证明

使用社交网络的力量。获得关键同龄人的信任 - 社交网络中心的人民 - 增加与更广泛的受众的参与。

Recognise that these skills rely on an intimate knowledge of social networks, knowledge difficult to gain without lengthy experience in an organisation.

Consistency

建立他人的承诺，寻求书面或公共契约。

建立的行为特质始终如一，将激励人们执行这些合同。令人惊讶的是让人们在集团电子邮件中陈述他们的目标和时间表是如何有效的。

权威

A successful, public record of accomplishment is a key part of influence. Openly display your expertise before seeking broad engagement: tell people about your past successes.

You might try starting your presentations with a short background piece describing your past successes or a short career history.

受众更愿意比你可能希望推迟到一个明显的专家的决策。

缺乏

Carefully manage the collection and the distribution of rare information.

罕见的信息是应该明智地花费的核心影响力“货币”。

建筑师经常可以访问其他人（此可能包括最新的技术分析师报告，先进版本的软件版本，或仅仅是当前领导主题的知识）。

These are all valuable coinage to be traded.

Step 3: Avoiding the Pitfalls

消息内容不一致

告诉一个组的东西和另一个团队别的东西是一个肯定的方式来打破信任。确保您的团队传达连贯的信息。

这需要比你想象的更多努力，特别是随着团队的增长。为您提供不同意见的每个人都破坏了您试图跨越和影响的消息。

标准不一致

避免发挥最爱，优惠治疗繁殖愤世嫉俗和不信任。如果您已记录架构标准和例外策略，请粘附它们，并且您尚未记录并共享您的标准，请执行此操作。

错位仁慈

Be sure to take action against others who show inept, negative or volatile behaviour. Ignoring troubling behaviours breaks downs and anyone who appears angry first.

Resolving these differences is a key step to achieving broader acceptance and success.

Suspicions of Concealment

Bring painful situations out into the open. Hesitation to do so will lead others to decide that something is being disguised.

The added benefit of being open with challenging issues is that just occasionally someone will be able to help you resolve them.

Destructive Rumours

Be forthright in communication, even if the situation's outcome is uncertain.

Partial information disclosure will allow destructive rumours to surface.

Linguistic Style

一个人的感知能力是影响力的关键原则。

人们主要通过语言风格来判断能力。

A person's characteristic speaking pattern may include such features as directness or indirectness, pacing and pausing, word choice, and the use of jokes, figures of speech, stories, questions and apologies.

人们以不同的方式解释演讲，并为语言行为分配不同的含义，如提问，道歉，间接。

A misjudgement in this way may wrongly lead to a listener ignoring or rejecting the speaker's ideas because the listener has prematurely decided the speaker lacks competence.

Conclusion

Using these techniques to build new communication skills and increase trust might feel unnatural at first. It might even distract from designing technical solutions and building business cases. However, it is all too common to find new technologies left on the shelf, architectures left unused and architects struggling for funding.

Don't let your architectures languish on the shelf. Incorporate new working practices like these and see more development teams use your designs.

Next steps: Many firms run training courses in improving communications and influence skills. Enterprise architects should even consider supplementing their teams with professional communication services.

This article was contributed by Richard J. Black who is the global trading technology strategist for BP Plc