Gossip as a tool in enterprise architecture

So, how do you focus on the human aspects of technology for the greater benefit of the organization? Focus on gossip of course...



Do not say negative things about people, especially about your boss but motivate others to publicly speak negatively about their own bosses. Becoming passive/aggressive and speaking out of both sides of your mouth is the best way to manage perception. Always look good by encouraging others to look worse than you.

For example you can privately speak bad of someone, so that the victim feels safe to speak bad about his own boss. Then you make him repeat it in public, by his mistake of course. This tactic is guaranteed to net you more money in your next review as this is the epitome of perception management.

Enterprise Architecture: Sometimes consensus is an antipattern...

Imagine a method of governance which works as follows: Every citizen has a vote and every citizen has a veto (interesting that these are anagrams for each other). How much could be accomplished?



So, the answer to the question is not much,since in a population of any size there will very rarely be unanimity or even consensus. Thus, it is necessary to resort to majority rule.

What has this to do with team-based cultures? Plenty! There is some size for an organization beyond which consensus politics just can't scale effectively, so we rely on majority rule with institutionalized protection for minority interests. In the name of consensus, however, some organizations find themselves paralyzed as any management person can cast what is a virtual veto by refusing to buy in to a group consensus.

While I have never used this technique due to my higher integrity standards, I have always been curious as to playing the card of walking into a meeting, stating that I don't feel comfortable with some solution, avoid articulating why and simply walking out. Of course, this could have several outcomes ranging from simply being ignored to derailing an important project. I wonder how others live with themselves that use this tactic?

Anyway, I wonder if consensus building is a mental disorder? Why aren't decisions nowadays made based on facts and backtestable assertions? Are we afraid to do a little bit of homework? Is our attention deficit a gift or an impediment to truly realizing the strategic intent we seek?

How to manage a micromanager...

A friend in another company recently solicited my advice on how to deal with his boss who is a micromanager. Here is what I told him to do...



One can learn endurance and practice how to find and recognize the vulnerable places in the dragon's armor. One almost guaranteed technique is to give them even more to manage to the point of overload.

Forward him every email relevant to your job. Discuss all matters with him. Inform him often. This will put the pressure of sorting your input on him, with little effort from you. If he has other victims who follow the same strategy, he is sure to blow, or adjust his behavior.

The only scenario I thought of that says this strategy is wrong is when your boss turns sadist because his/her boss has started micromanaging them. Usually in this case, he is micromanaging because he needs to create observable ceremony for those above to observe. In this situation, the tactic is somewhat different in that you still allow yourself to be micromanaged but you work with your boss to create things that feel like handwaving and churn without causing harm to each other.