Unlocking the Power of Enterprise Architects: Thought Leadership, AI, and Career Impact

Jeff Kavanaugh:

I'm excited to be here and glad that Paul asked me to because the enterprise architect community is one of the most, I think, underappreciated and strong, not just technically, but just conceptual professions. And hopefully today you can leave with a little more confidence to get out there and to make sure that people know. Let's think about a few things. It's an exciting time to be in your business. SAP is doing well as a company, I’ve been in the ecosystem since way back when there was a low number after the letter R. It’s amazing to see the rejuvenation and the rebirth over and over again and how strong. So you're part of a wonderful, strong ecosystem. Every company is a software company. Tech is pervasive everywhere. And if you look on the right, you don’t need to see the small numbers, it's up and to the right. And that's off to 2034. The enterprise architect market is just growing and growing. So congratulations. However, the same forces that make all this efficiency possible are also threatening. You've got everything from the number of employees to generate a million dollars down to two. Sam Altman and others are talking about when is the first single employee unicorn as in a B, billion dollars of revenue. That sounds great if you're that person, what about all the others? And then lastly, or off to the right, to be a software developer, to be in that profession around it. It's kind of dicey. Less and less people are needed to create all this value. And last but not least, not that you're shedding tears for the Harvard MBAs, but that's typically considered the unassailable high ground. Even they are at record levels of not finding a position months after. So what does this all mean? How do you overcome this? I dealt with these very questions. Grew up, this is my farm, in southern Indiana. From there to engineering school, shop floor manufacturing and thought that was a good path. But, it was difficult to make an impact because there were others who seemed either to be promoted more quickly or their ideas had more credence or somehow they could speak conceptually. And I set out about to say how could you, how could I learn more of these things. So over the years, went into consulting, was around some phenomenal individuals and companies and gradually built a toolkit. Brick by brick, tool by tool. I'll never forget my first architecture project back in the mid-90s. Fantastic. Supply chain trading company out of Denver. Pipeline. Building a platform up, working with the architects. It was amazing. It was actually one of my first projects at Infosys. Actually, there's another one. That very intelligent individual and yet could not organize and the logic and communicate the ideas. And so that was one of the first clues I had that the architecture community could probably use a dose of not self-promotion, but organizing, communicating a little more effectively. So although we could speak a lot about many topics today, we only have a few minutes and I think I'm separating you and us from some drinks and some enjoyment. Let's bring up four ideas. Thought leadership matters. And insights with empathy. We'll dig into that. Drive this flywheel. And I'm glad the earlier speaker mentioned this because a flywheel is much more than a nice turn of a phrase. We'll get to that in a little bit later. So let's go into these things. First of all, you've heard the term thought leadership a lot. It's probably tossed around a lot in your companies and your work. What is it? There are several definitions, but let's have a very practical, simple one. We all like formulas. It's expertise applied with impact. You can be a great thinker, but you can't be a thought leader if there's no followers. It's not a thought master. It's a leader. You have people following you willingly. Thought leadership, quality of the content. The quality matters. Content matters. The extent of your reach. How many people, how many of the right people? For example, executives in your company, peers in your industry, respect what you have to say, the gravitas of it. And then, what about the experience these individuals receive when you communicate your message? Is it garbled? Is it littered with things you don't think are important like grammar or the way it looks? I used to tell people if you have, let's say, your spouse, you're getting engaged, think way back, and you have this wonderful engagement ring, let's say you spent a fortune, it's a Tiffany ring, but you put it in a soggy cardboard box. Probably not a good start. So sometimes the wrapper matters, but even more than the wrapper, it's just the structure. And lastly, the engagement. Is it set up for questions? Do you have a way of being reachable? So insights and impact. Thought leadership could be complex, but do you have something to say, and can you create impact? All right, another useful metaphor, another concept, is imagine thought leadership as a ladder. Because unfortunately or fortunately, there are a lot of smart people and engineers, definitely one of them. You start off by thinking about primers. You want to tell people what you know. Facts, statistics, details. It's all great if you're a novice or you're new, you're in college, you're training. Like this book, for example, was here probably has a lot of that. Well, what do you do with that, especially if you're around people who already know the basics? And then there are those so-called good practices, I hate to say leading, how many says are best practices? Well, it's not best anymore because everyone can get at them pretty quickly. So they're good practices. It's a good start, but again, if you're working with an executive in your company, they've been doing this for years. So you can't really be a leader with something people already know. Well, the next level up on the ladder, benchmarks. They're good statistics, surveys. They establish a measurement or yardstick, which is great, but like fruit or visiting relatives, they go bad pretty quick. After a bit of time, you need to keep refreshing them. So they're good, but it's a bit of a sugar high in the world of knowledge. Findings are a little bit better. It's the implication. Ah, there's a fact, there's a situation. What does it imply? What's it pulling you toward? That's good. The next level though is where you want to get. Insights are the core. An insight is something that is bold, compelling, not obvious, possibly counterintuitive, it gets your attention, and it shows a profound perspective on something. You've got something distinct. And it may be a topic that's already known out there, but you've got a fresh take on it, maybe for your company, for your region, for your language, for your... And then recommendations are what you do with that. There's no value until you do something with this information. Even better, a compelling story. Otherwise, as exciting as we all think we are whenever we're on a call or whenever we write something, unless the other person is receiving information in a way that resonates beyond just the words, it probably won't stick. If you've ever studied language or linguistics, your words are probably 28%, maybe 30% tops of what you're saying. The non-verbal, like a pause that pulls you in, or your intonation, the chronology, the haptic, you know, for example, if you reach them, you're making a connection. So there's many types of communication. And just like in a story, it's the same thing. You're organizing the elements of a story. So think about this as a ladder. And I'm highlighting this because this is something you can do right now. The message you're sending tomorrow, the report that you're writing, the presentation you're creating. It probably is just rich with those bottom rungs. Greater information. Ask yourself, is it an implication? Is there a so what? Can you highlight something that's not obvious? Something that was surprising? It's the same thing we find in our stories. It can't just be the marketing aspect, or you know that's the story part. The story brings the content to life. Well, what's an insight? I mentioned it's not a piece of data, statistic, or a fact. It's not a direct promotion. Like it can't be… and our solution is. Well, again, people start to put their guards up. You've got to lower guards, lower people's defensiveness. It is a new way of understanding something. It also elevates everything else. What are some examples? And for those of you filling up your storage, you'll have an editable version of this later through Paul. Because again, we're about sharing and want to make sure that you get all this information. There's plenty of resources at the end. Here's some good examples. Let's say you've got a test you've run. They failed. Is that an insight? No. You've stated a fact. It might be an essential fact, but it's still a fact. Companies breaking digital ceiling. That is an insight. You've just said that there is a perspective on what companies are doing and what it means for their business. And you can read the others as well. I like the last one we did for a report. We called it Cloud Goldilocks because there were these different extremes and there was a happy medium. Sometimes a metaphor or a saying can pull someone up, capture the concept, and then you can go back in the details. Now, sounds great, but you might say, okay great, how do I create an insight? Do I have to wait for a blinding flash of insight? No, you can create these things. I studied dozens of frameworks, the best thinkers, including the Jim Collins, but also academics for years. And five stages emerged. It is a repeatable process. Design, research, analysis and interpretation in an iterative way, and then adoption. And this could be a very long session, but we'll summarize. Think about a unified field theory, much as in physics. Many of the underlying concepts you already know, you've seen design thinking, you probably are Lean Six Sigma, Blackbelts, Master Blackbelts, many of these, at the same time, they all have an essential role to play in generating an insight. Hypotheses, modeling, you probably model every day. Some of you might be in front of the camera modeling, just kidding, but it's more like the structure. In fact, some of the modeling tools from SAP that have just been shared are phenomenal. You're able to pull information together that's no longer static. Research. Sounds obvious, but there is so much secondary research that you can do now. And then some primary research in your company, and then a diagnosis. Analysis. Notice the exclamation point in your tools. That's often where people run to. It's ChatGPT, it's regression, it's whatever the tool de jour is. They start there and in there. But if you aren't pointing the right direction, you haven't framed it correctly, then you might not be solving the right problem. So problem finding, much as design thinking implies, is where to start. And then after that, just because you found an answer, you need to recognize patterns, interpret. And that's why the interpret stage is so important. Also, how do you visualize? What kind of chart do you use? There's a science behind that. How do you visualize? Now, people are a lot farther along these days than before because there's a lot of automation and support and tools. Finally, though, adopt. And if you don't communicate what you're doing, then people won't internalize it and nothing changes. And change management, for example, you might say, why is that there? Well, until someone changes behavior, or adopts what you're saying, you can still be smart and right, but do you get that project funded? Do they not go live when they shouldn't but they're leaning towards? Does that change happen? All right, talk about flywheels. Flywheels are something I also studied a lot, and the previous speaker completely support what he said. Beyond that though, these are very intentional, very purposeful. And let's apply insight development in your work with the flywheel concept. If you have an opportunity, you learn a new skill. Whatever project you're on, whatever work that your function you're in. Well, that allows you to experiment and hone your skill on some kind of project or operation. Well, when you hone a skill and become an expert, you can achieve mastery and develop insights, these non-obvious, possibly counterintuitive ideas. Then you share those in such a way someone else can benefit. You share them with colleagues, possibly clients if you're in that kind of environment. And that allows you to increase your reputation and the demand for your services, for your skills, people are aware of it, which leads to better opportunities and new skills and growing levels of impact. Intentionally, purposefully doing this over and over and over again is just a guarantee of success. Is it fast? Is it slow? That's up to you and your environment. But this has an incredible power. And for each of you, it will be a little bit different. What skills are there? How do you share? Do you share externally? Are you in consulting firm? Are you a fellow in your technical department at your company? It'll vary, but this is about as close to a guarantee applied to your expertise as you can get to grow your career. And the nice part about it is it is very fungible across disciplines. Now, if you'll permit me, that all sounds good, but unless you have this in an attitude of service and empathy, empathy is a word that sometimes gets overused or it's a nice fluffy word, it means you care. It means you care about your colleague, your customer, your user, the person on the end of this use case. And that not only helps you listen more deeply, notice more deeply, and really get at the root cause, it also allows that other individual to lower their guard and listen and believe in what you're And empathy, as a vital ingredient, is the glue for this. Now, if you'll permit me, take a step back. How do you apply this even more across your career and your life? Well, think about service. An attitude of grateful service in whatever you're doing. You've got a great career. You're probably in a great company. Well, be grateful for that and build on it. I know it's easy to complain, but build upon what you have. And when you do that, when you serve and you're thinking like this, you're noticing more deeply. You're learning. We all talk about lifelong learning. Why do you learn? It's because you're intentionally doing it. Why do you do it? The serving is the why, and it gets you to do this nomenclature basis. And if you serve enough, you what you do? You earn. Now what do you earn? You earn money, you earn respect, and in your personal life you earn love. There's all kinds of things that you earn. And when you earn, you can then save. It buffers uncertainty. You save money, certainly. You're buffering up reputation, social equity in your company, relationship points and all that. So you're building this. And if you save enough, well then you can invest. You can invest in your career, you get to do things in your company, and when you invest, you can serve more. And this becomes a flywheel in itself. So again, this is a little bit beyond the EA technical reason you're probably here. And yet, this is the ultimate flywheel. And this will be probably a couple of years out in another book. But if you incorporate this over time, the gravitas, the way you communicate, it will just show. And you will have more impact. Now, you see, this is all great. What do I do? Well, how many of you today regularly write or publish inside your company or externally? Not a lot of hands, folks. Good news. There are these platforms that make it easier. Just write a blog, five paragraphs, 10 paragraphs, about something. Or an article, contribute to something, could be in your company. Or if you're leading an area, I heard someone mention they lead 10 enterprise architects. We call these keystone points of view where you lay out a problem, you go into it, you look at the different aspects, maybe a few examples. Next thing you know, it's a few thousand words. And you know what? I've heard there are these tools out there that actually clean things up for you. So if writing has been your Achilles heel? No more excuses. It's out there. You might say, but what do I do? Well, take what you know, just document it and validate it. That's it. Just what you know right now. Because the intersection of your industry, the technology you know, the platform, SAP and its derivations, and your particular company, that's distinct. No one else has that perspective. So articulate it. Go beyond your project. Go beyond your function. How many, how much, how often, what surprises you, what's a nuance, any patterns. You can do all these things, but you've got to do it purposefully. And then lastly, apply specific information to convert static facts and abstract concepts into something compelling. And you might say, well, I don't know the Joseph Campbell 12-step hero's journey and I can't do all this. Beginning, middle, end. There's a context, something happened, and here's what it meant. Just do that. You don't go from zero to 100. You just grind through. I look at some of the things I wrote many years ago. I laugh and cry at the same time. But it gives you hope that Andre Agassi was at one of our events, and I was fortunate to able go back and talk with him because he wrote growing up. And he talked about being better today, just better today. It could be 1%. And a nod to the Toyota folks in the room, Kaizen and the Toyota production system, just 1% improvement. Like a ratchet though, don't go back. Click, click, click, click, click, click. You get better and you stay there. Get better and you stay there. Every once in a while you do a step function, that's great. Maybe you have the ChatGPT moment, but just get better and lock it in. It's not enough to create though, you gotta share. Where do you share? A case study. How often in your company do people ask you, do you have a case study? You say, I don't have time. You don't have time not to. It is so frustrating when someone else who doesn't know as much as you gets credit for something that either you did or you know more of because you didn't take the time just to document what you did. So find a way to work that into your routine. Also, internal publications. Every company is, there's someone in internal comms, HR, you're just dying to get content. And I know it's uncomfortable. You might think it's self-promotion, but flip it around to say it is your duty and obligation, your responsibility to share what you know because it will help your team, it will help your department, your company, and broadly speaking, the market. Talk about silos, well silos are also in our heads. Let's get the information out. And of course, LinkedIn. You're scrolling, why not join? Just say something. It isn't just congratulations, congratulations, and all the little hearts and the little thumbs ups. It can be something, just one sentence. What is the one sentence on something? Because the more you do that, the more comfortable it gets. And then lastly, conference presentations. Actually, second lastly, because these books that were sitting here, you could have written those. Why didn't you? Weren't aware, didn't have the time. And what's nice is you might say, I can't write a book. You don't have to. Find someone else that's writing and contribute. You could be quoted. You could contribute one paragraph. I can tell you as a person who's written and oversees a team or leads a team who does that, we're desperate for great people who want to contribute. So that's a separate thing for later. If you'd like, these reports come out, your name's in it, you're part of it. You're contributing to the body of knowledge. All right. More tools and resources for you. First of all, everything we talked about with these five stages there is a series of videos that if you like they're all there and you can have them. When we share this, this link will take you to a series of eight videos, these five and a few others. We've used them for boot camps. You're welcome, in fact, we'd love it if you scan through and see what's applicable for you. Because part of this is about communication as well. What's the difference between the way you communicate and the way you're CTO communicates, you're CEO or the best management consultant. These are learned habits, that's all, and just practice. Same thing for the PowerPoints. Why does a CEO value someone who can communicate in a certain way? It's because they get more in 10 minutes, they might have got in an hour from someone else. Not that you're shirking the detail, but you're synthesizing, and there are ways of doing that, and I cover that in all these videos. In addition, if you do like the book, my first book, Consulting Essentials, goes through a lot of these. And again, it's a toolkit. Everything from ways to communicate, specific words to use, not to use, the three frameworks that 80% of the time management consultants use. If you do those for diagnostics and et cetera, they get you started. Now as far as the content itself, the Knowledge Institute, this is the brief plug for us, we are the business research arm of Infosys. And we produce several hundred reports, articles, videos, et cetera, per year. And some of it is highlighting experts in Infosys, most of it. A lot of it is pulling in clients, pulling in experts, academics, and enterprise architects in the field who have something to say that could be shared. So these are two books we've written. One, the Live Enterprise, I wrote with our CTO, Rafee Tarafdar, and it's an operating model for the future. Wrote this a few years ago. And so some of the concepts might be relevant. Take them. Use them, adopt them, claim them. Things like the platforms and the small teams and stack and how to evolve your architecture. Every six weeks our company changes 2%. The architecture actually changes. And that's something that you probably are doing or trying to do. Might be some lessons there. The other one, sustainability. Too much of what's been written about sustainability has been well intended. But we actually went carbon neutral in 10 years with no purchased offsets. And Cory and I, when we wrote that book, we wanted to demystify what that meant. And so maybe that's something relevant as well as you're struggling with how to achieve these ESG goals. It's all science-based, 346 annotated bibliography notes. There are also, for this crowd, a Tech Navigator series and Tech Compass, 15 different areas. Everything from platform and cloud all the way down to low code, no code, and APIs and things. Again, read them, and it might give you something to think about when you write your own. And then last but not least, two of our most recent reports, if any of you are thinking about implementing AI at scale, well, only 2% of companies as of a few months ago we found were ready on all five attributes. They're inching along, but this is good data when you're trying to get things approved. And then on the right, we looked at 500 use cases, 3,500 executives around the world, and have a lot of research based on that. So, download that, read it, and then decide what you can do to add 5% to it and publish it. It's meant for the public domain. So with that, I'll end it, because I've been given the one minute warning. But again, wanted to summarize by saying, the enterprise architect community is probably the most underappreciated, strongest thinking, and more impactful community out there. And please, take whatever reticence you have to maybe promote a little more. Channel it and have that purpose, because you've got a strong role to play for your companies, for yourselves, and for larger society. Thank you.