Que faites-vous si vos échecs en architecture d’entreprise entravent votre crédibilité et votre confiance auprès des parties prenantes ?

Quoting Edison, "I discovered 1000 ways that can cause failure, not failed 1000 times." In business transformation Projects, uncertainties often lead to missed targets impacting stakeholder trust. To regain credibility, it's crucial to acknowledge the miss, conduct thorough RCA with stakeholders, collaborate on remedial actions on the stakeholders' viewpoints for the Business Architecture, Agree on the ToBe Architecture with the stakeholders, test and deploy solutions incrementally, highlight quick wins, & celebrate successes to boost team morale, Log the lessons learnt. Over time, credibility will be restored, ensuring valuable lessons for the future. It's important that both Team's morale and Stakeholders' trust are regained hand in hand.

Acknowledge the feedback and analyze the current state of business architecture. What is not perceived as valuable by your stakeholders? List the current point of view, artifacts, information and the dashboard and brainstorm what is irrelevant. When it comes to building trust, always welcome and acknowledge feedback. Open communication and transparency are the keys to building trust. Treat your critics as your best partners. Understand their perspective and change your approach. Naysayers (those who deny, refuse, oppose, or are skeptical or cynical about something) are the best mentors for you. Be close to them and work with them. You will improve gradually.

Acknowledging errors should always be paired with rebuilding trust, even before analyzing failures. Trust is a people issue, not a content issue. Most people understand that errors can be made. However, losing credibility, or trust, means that somewhere along the line, the bizArchs became the owner of business architecture, NOT its custodians. They also probably worked in silo, from an ivory tower. Success and failure are collective concepts if all contribute to it, so as you acknowledge your errors, set the right tone (resolutions) for the future. Step 2, analyzing failures, should be done using that collaborative approach. It should also be recurring and lessons learned tracked, implemented and measured. Apply agile principles.

Urgency is critical because the situation needs to be fixed (business is being lost, risk needs reduction…) Diagnostic clarity in communication is essential since everyone needs to understand the current situation and ought to be included in potential changes and improvements. I personally think a little time can help folks consider the factors and some group ideation and collaboration can be beneficial. This is at odds with overall urgency but often is worth it.

In the event of setbacks in business architecture efforts, promptly acknowledging mistakes is key to restoring trust. Demonstrating transparency and accountability, communicating with stakeholders immediately, and clearly explaining the situation without shifting blame. Focus on the facts and your resolve to correct the issue. Such candor limits damage to your credibility and bolsters stakeholder confidence in your resilience and commitment to improvement. This approach underscores the importance of honesty and proactive problem-solving in navigating the complexities of business architecture.

Once you've acknowledged your mistakes in the realm of Business Architecture, the next step towards rebuilding credibility and trust with stakeholders is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the failure. This process entails drilling down to the root causes of the issue and grasping its broader implications on your business architecture. Collaborate closely with your team to break down the event, inviting a range of perspectives to ensure a well-rounded understanding. The focus here should be on extracting valuable lessons and identifying avenues for growth, rather than pinpointing fault.

Feedback: Encourage stakeholders to share their perspectives, concerns, and suggestions for improvement. Actively listen to their feedback and demonstrate a commitment to addressing their needs and concerns. Accountability: Hold individuals and teams accountable for their roles in the failure, whether it's through performance reviews, corrective actions, or process improvements. Show stakeholders that lessons have been learned and changes are being made to prevent similar failures in the future. Rebuild: Invest time and effort in rebuilding relationships with stakeholders who may have been negatively impacted by the failure. Demonstrate empathy, understanding, and a willingness to work collaboratively to regain trust.

Restoring trust in business architecture after setbacks involves setting realistic expectations and consistently meeting them. Focus on achieving short-term goals to demonstrate reliability and gradually rebuild confidence. Regularly communicate your progress, maintaining transparency about successes and challenges. This steady, open approach will gradually reinforce to stakeholders your commitment and ability to deliver results, underlining the importance of perseverance and clear communication in rebuilding trust.

To rebound from setbacks in business architecture, proactively expand your expertise through further training or certification. Connect with industry peers to discover best practices and innovative solutions. Enhancing your skills shows stakeholders your commitment to professional growth and excellence, effectively bolstering your credibility and reinforcing your capacity as a competent business architect. This strategy underlines the importance of continuous learning in overcoming challenges and fostering trust.

Enhancing skills doesn't only have to mean certifications and courses. Go to networking events. See what else is happening out there. Broaden your horizon.

After upgrading your skills and analyzing past failures, revise your business architecture processes with a plan that targets identified issues and proposes improvement steps. This may involve updating methodologies, integrating new technologies, or enhancing stakeholder communication. Such actions demonstrate your proactive problem-solving attitude and dedication to achieving superior results, signaling a firm commitment to rectify past shortcomings and elevate the overall quality and effectiveness of your business architecture efforts.

Have an accountability buddy. This can be your boss. Or their boss. Have someone hold you accountable for your plan of action. A peer may not have the entire context of what you are trying to do and what needs to be achieved.

Some schools of thought believe that the lesson isn't truly learned until we've implemented corrective action. I agree that this is the moment that we can move on, just a little stronger than we were before. Make sure you communicate the planned corrective action too, so that others are reassured that your processes are now more robust.

Meet with the steering committee to show them where you were, where you are now and show them tangible KPIs and outputs of the new architecture. It is all well and good to everything else but you need to show how you are taking yourself, and your company forward.

Embrace a forward-looking mindset to move beyond past business architecture failures. Focusing on future possibilities rather than previous setbacks is key to regaining trust and credibility. Keep stakeholders updated on fresh strategies and their potential to enhance business value. Showcasing a positive outlook and a definitive vision for what lies ahead reassures stakeholders of your commitment to progress and successful collaboration, underlining the importance of optimism and strategic foresight in overcoming challenges and building stronger, more effective partnerships.

Many of these lessons can be applied just about anywhere in life, not just in our professional life, and not just in business architecture. Learn from the past, and use it to improve. Instead of focusing on the failure, focus on the lesson and how you can apply it to what is in front of you now.

Enhance your understanding of the Business Model and Business Strategy. The Business Architecture should be aligned to these, covering the current Business State (internal & external) as well as providing opportunities to demonstrate a some level of business model innovation that captures the strategic imperatives.

Any objective failures that can be demonstrated with metrics should be recognized and corrected as soon as possible. Special care must be taken with "gossip" and power structures that influence the perception of failures objectively, in this case a diplomatic reaction can be applied to mitigate or turn around any subjective situation.