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11 Rules for Critical Thinking via Brain Pickings

December 22, 2013 By brenda michelson

From the fantastic Brain Pickings:

“Dubbed Prospero’s Precepts, these eleven rules culled from some of history’s greatest minds can serve as a general-purpose guideline for critical thinking in all matters of doubt:

  1. All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level. (Stephen Schneider)
  2. Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. (Dandemis)
  3. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. (Francis Bacon)
  4. Never fall in love with your hypothesis. (Peter Medawar)
  5. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts. (Arthur Conan Doyle)
  6. A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong. (Francis Crick)
  7. The thing that doesn’t fit is the thing that is most interesting. (Richard Feynman)
  8. To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. (Charles Darwin)
  9. It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. (Mark Twain)
  10. Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong. (Thomas Jefferson)
  11. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident. (Arthur Schopenhauer)”

via Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? 11 Rules for Critical Thinking | Brain Pickings.

Filed Under: links, thinking styles Tagged With: archive_0, stream

Stop talking about enterprise architecture. Go solve a problem.

November 25, 2013 By brenda michelson

Many years ago, as a newly minted lead architect, I had a memorable initial 1×1 with our organization’s CIO. After reviewing my hand drawn (pencil on paper) application and information landscape, and hearing the CIO’s vision for common front-ends across retail, catalog and (burgeoning) web channel, we discussed the state of the union, and the inevitable gap from here to there.

After I listed ten or so gap items, I looked to the CIO for verification and prioritization. Instead, the CIO said, “I don’t care what you do, just do something.”

I admit. I was taken aback by the CIO’s response. Afterwards, I sat in my cube wondering why the organization created this new (enterprise architecture predecessor) position, if the big boss didn’t care what I worked on.

Then though, thankfully, I interpreted the CIO’s message differently, correctly. The CIO didn’t care which of the litany of items I picked, because tackling any item would move us closer to the ultimate, customer-centric vision.

This is the perspective I draw from as I advise architects and enterprise architecture groups who struggle in starting, or revitalizing an architecture practice. To get traction, don’t get tangled up in a framework or methodology, go solve a problem.

The problem doesn’t even need to reside in the (traditional) enterprise architecture domain. Nor does the solution have to be perfect, or in classic form. Just move your organization closer to there, from here. Repeat as required.

While this problem-solving, action-oriented approach can slow-down the generation of traditional artifacts and processes, it does accelerate value generation, and really, isn’t that the point.

Need to grow your architecture practice and credibility? Go solve a problem.

Filed Under: enterprise architecture Tagged With: archive_0

Patterns of intrapreneurs and great enterprise architects

October 15, 2013 By brenda michelson

Reading Recognize Intrapreneurs Before They Leave – Vijay Govindarajan and Jatin Desai – Harvard Business Review, I was struck by the commonality between the intrapeneurs referenced in the article, and the best enterprise architects I’ve met, worked with.

Quite possibly, it is because really great enterprise architects are forward-thinking, creative, reflective and execution-capable.

The pattern match:

“Pattern #2: Strategic Scanning. Intrapreneurs are constantly thinking about what is next, one step into the future. These passionate change agents are highly engaged, very clear, and visibly consistent in their work and interactions. They are not sitting around waiting for the world to change; they’re figuring out which part of the world is about to change, and they will arrive just in time to leverage their new insights. Learning is like oxygen to them.

Pattern #3: Greenhousing. Intrapreneurs tend to contemplate the seed of an idea for days and weeks between calls, meetings, and conversation. As they shine more light on it, the idea becomes clearer, but they don’t yet share it. They know that others may dismiss it without fully appreciating it — so they tend to ideas in their greenhouse, protecting them for a while from potential naysayers.

Pattern #4: Visual Thinking. Visual thinking is a combination of brainstorming, mind mapping, and design thinking. Only after an exciting insight do intrapreneurs seem able to formulate and visualize a series of solutions in their head—rarely do they formulate just one solution. They do not act impulsively on a solution immediately, keenly aware of the need to honor the discovery phase for the new solution, giving it time to develop and crystallize.”

Filed Under: enterprise architecture Tagged With: archive_0, stream

Link: Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing – NYTimes.com

October 13, 2013 By brenda michelson

“It was the act of drawing that allowed us to speculate.”

Source Link: NYTimes

via Diigo

Filed Under: links, thinking styles Tagged With: archive_0, stream

Link: disrupt thyself

October 13, 2013 By brenda michelson

“Success in self-disruption requires at least the following six elements:

1. An autonomous business unit. The unit should have all the functional skills it needs to succeed, freeing it from reliance on the parent organization, and it must not report to the business or businesses that are being disrupted.

2. Leaders who come from the relevant “schools of experience.” These leaders have addressed a variety of challenges, especially in the kinds of problems the new growth business will face. They are often necessarily sourced from outside the organization” …

source link: bmichelson on tumblr excerpting HBR article on Disrupting Consulting
via Diigo

Additional disruption of consulting in Scott Berkun’s Consultants Should All Get Real Jobs

Filed Under: change, links Tagged With: archive_0, consulting, disruption, stream

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Brenda M. Michelson

Brenda Michelson

Technology Architect.

Trusted Advisor.

(BIO)

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