Reducing enterprise dissonance

Have you thought about the degree of dissonance that exists within your enterprise? Have you considered what the cost of this dissonance might be to the performance of your enterprise and its future success? Have you identified where the greatest points of dissonance exist in your enterprise? Have you considered what you might do to reduce dissonance in your enterprise?

Exploring enterprise dissonance

You may not have considered the concept of “enterprise dissonance” before now. It was prompted by thinking about enterprise integration, wholeness and harmony, and contemplating potential antonyms. Here are several definitions for dissonance that you might use to reflect on the dissonance within enterprises with whom you are engaged.

Dissonance: lack of agreement or harmony between people and things

Dissonance: conflict or incongruity

Dissonance: uncomfortable sense experienced by people in the midst of change

Assuming you do recognise the existence of dissonance in your enterprise. What are the causes of this dissonance? What might you do to reduce the degree of dissonance (assuming that it is an unnecessary overhead and impediment to enhanced enterprise performance)?

Diagnosing enterprise dissonance

One of the key causes of dissonance, in my experience, is that people hold different models of the enterprise, the environment in which it operates, or the parts of which it is composed. This prompts engaging with enterprises to explore:

1. the explicit models that the enterprise is using to describe itself or its intended self
2. any gaps or inconsistencies that might be evident in these models
3. any gaps or inconsistencies between current capability and intended capability represented by these models
4. any gaps or inconsistencies that might be evident between the implicit models that are evident in how leaders think, communicate, decide and act and the explicit

Any of these gaps or inconsistencies can be the cause for enterprise dissonance as people:

• unknowingly act in differing and conflicting ways
• respond to demands which expose gaps requiring immediate response without the opportunity to agree the manner in which the issue should be addressed
• intentionally take actions to further personal or group goals and aspirations which may not be consistent with enterprise goals and aspirations

Dealing with enterprise dissonance

Having identified critical gaps, the enterprises are more readily able to develop a more integrated set of models on which to base an assessment of capability gap and a transformation plan to address the priority gaps.

Many enterprises have well established approaches to business transformation planning and capability development. The more critical issues seem to be:

• identifying the critical gaps
• addressing these gaps in a more holistic manner

This is where architecting enterprises, in enhancing enterprise awareness, enables enterprises to take a more effective approach to achieving enterprise integration, wholeness and harmony, thereby reducing enterprise dissonance, and enhancing enterprise performance and enterprise viability and sustainability. These themes are explored further in the linked articles and more fully in the following series of articles (see series index).

• Architecting enterprises – plain and simple
• Architecting enterprises – digging deeper
• Architecting enterprises – principles
• Architecting enterprises – for Directors
• Architecting smaller enterprises
• Architecting disability sector enterprises

Read more by Peter Murchland, here

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