A practical tool to explore a business-context and to elicit ideas for innovation

1. Innovation
– find the gap!
Using enterprise-architecture
to support innovation
Tom Graves, Tetradian Consulting
KPN NL, February 2013

2. Innovation – find the gap!
• Innovation comes from change, and is change
• (somewhat anarchic – change means changing the rules)
• Change can be incremental or transformative
• (either type is fine – preference depends on what we need)
• Innovation hides within shifts of perspective
• (need to trick it into showing itself – find the gap!)
• Many strategies and tactics to open the space
• (gap-analysis, brainstorming, conscious-forgetting etc)
• For here we’ll use an EA tool: the ‘This’-game
• (starting with EA leads more directly toward implementation)

3. Using the ‘This’-game
• The ‘Start Anywhere’ principle – start anywhere!
• (business-problem, pain-point, idea – anything will do)
• Give a name to this whatever-it-is
• (or, to start off, just call it ‘This’)
• Use the game’s questions to explore this ‘This’
• (innovation as a quest, guided by questions)
• Argue, inquire, explore – see what happens!
• (create a space for ideas and suggestions to arise)
• Move up, down, round – explore as you need
• (up to abstract, down to detail, move to another ‘This’)

4. (Using this slidedeck)
You can use this slidedeck in the linear page-by-page way,
or in a non-linear manner, via the icon-bar to the right:
•the Home button takes you to the main visual menu
•the eight graphic icons below the Home button take you to
the respective key question-page for the ‘This’-game
•a right-arrow, if shown, takes you to a ‘child-page’ for the
current key question-page
•a left-arrow, if shown (as on this page), takes you back
towards the ‘parent’ page for the respective section

5. Start anywhere!
tell us about
this
item or service
What’s your start-point for your innovation-quest?
Expand outward from an overview of this initial ‘This’…

6. Overview
understandings of this opportunity / risk in this stakeholders in this
tell us about
this
item or service
making sense of this perspectives on this
interrelations of this delivering with this implementing this

7. Opportunity / risk in This
(Opportunity and risk as flipsides of
each other – yin and yang)
•What opportunities are
implied by This?
•What risks are
implied by This?
•How do we leverage
the risks to create
opportunity with This?
•How do we mitigate
risks arising from the
opportunities of This?

8. Understandings about This
(Understandings as layers of an
iceberg – Causal Layered Analysis)
•What are complaints
about This? (litany)
•How would you analyse
This? (systemic)
•What is the core
paradigm for This?
(worldview)
•How would a poet or
storyteller describe This?
(deep-myth)

9. (More on Causal Layered Analysis)
We can also map Causal Layered Analysis layers onto the
SCAN sensemaking-framework – see ‘Making sense of This’.

10. Making sense of This
(Using a context-space map – SCAN
sensemaking / decision-making
framework)
•What is simple and certain
about This? (Simple)
•How would you control
This? (Complicated)
•What varies with context
for This? (Ambiguous)
•What is inherently unique
and uncertain about This? (How does your view of This
(Not-known) change as you move around
in this concept-space?)

11. (More on SCAN sensemaking)
Dimensions in the SCAN framework:
•horizontal: certainty / order to uncertainty / unorder
•vertical: time-available ‘considered’ to real-time ‘now’

12. (Using SCAN to assess decision-
making)
(Same axes as in SCAN sensemaking)
Real-time decision-making needs different support to
that for ‘considered’ analysis and experimentation

13. Interrelations of This
(Relations-maps – Five Elements)
•What is the Purpose of This?
•Who are the People of This?
•What Preparation is needed
for This?
•What is the Process of This?
•How is Performance assured
for This?
• What Values link People to Purpose?• What Completions finalise Process?
• What Policies are needed to guide • How does Performance create Trust
Preparation? to link all the way back to Purpose?
• What Events start off the Process? • What holds this together as a whole?

14. (More on Five Elements - strategy)
A useful cross-map between the Five Elements set
and the emphases for strategy, tactics and operations

15. (More on Five Elements - effectiveness)
A useful cross-map between the Five Elements set
and key themes in effectiveness

16. Stakeholders in This
(Stakeholder-map – Market Model)
• Who organises the services of This?
• Who are suppliers or customers for This?
• Who would be the prospects for This?
• Who are other players in the market for This?
• Who else is affected by This, or can affect This?

17. (More on stakeholders – Service Cycle)
• What builds reputation and trust with stakeholders of This?
• How to create respect and relations with stakeholders of This?
• How to gain attention with the stakeholders of This?
• What are the transactions with stakeholders of This?
• What completions to reaffirm trust with stakeholders of This?

18. Perspectives on This
(Perspectives-map – Enterprise Canvas)
• Outside-out: What is the big-picture ‘world’ for This?
• Outside-in: What is the big-picture view into This?
• Journey: What are touchpoints between big-picture and This?
• Inside-out: What is the view into big-picture from This?
• Inside-in: What is the view into itself for This?

19. (More on perspectives – vision to goal)
Dimensions of enterprise-vision:
•What is the focus or concern for everyone in the enterprise?
•How is this focus or concern being worked on by / for everyone?
•Why is this important for / valued by everyone in the enterprise?

20. (More on perspectives – Enterprise
Canvas)
• Move ‘upward’ in perspective with ‘Why?’
• Move ‘downward’ in perspective with ‘How’ or ‘With-what?’

21. Implementing This
(Service-structure map – Enterprise Canvas)
• What are the structures, services, exchanges and flows of This?
• What are the interdependencies and support-services for This?

22. (Enterprise Canvas: service-content)
Use this checklist to review service-content (assets,
functions, locations, capabilities, events, decisions)

23. (Enterprise Canvas: layers / timelines)
Use this checklist to identify the scope and the type
and level of detail for each view of This.

24. Delivering the services of
This
(Service-delivery map – Five Elements and Enterprise Canvas)
• How do we link inside the service with outside the
service throughout all of the service-cycle of This?
• How do we link service-delivery to the aims of This?

25. Overview
understandings of this opportunity / risk in this stakeholders in this
tell us about
this
item or service
making sense of this perspectives on this
interrelations of this delivering with this implementing this

26. Go explore!
Innovate!
Enjoy!

27. (Further information)
More on themes in this slidedeck:
•Causal Layered Analysis:
• http://www.metafuture.org/Articles/CausalLayeredAnalysis.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_layered_analysis
•SCAN framework: ebook SCAN: the Tetradian weblogs
• https://leanpub.com/tp-scan
•Five Elements: book SEMPER and SCORE
• http://tetradianbooks.com/2008/07/semper/
•Market Model and Service Cycle: book Mapping the Enterprise
• http://tetradianbooks.com/2010/11/ecanvas/
•Perspectives: blog ‘Inside-in, inside-out, outside-in, outside-out’
• http://weblog.tetradian.com/2012/06/06/inside-in-inside-out-outside-in-outside-out/
•Enterprise Canvas: book Mapping the Enterprise
• http://tetradianbooks.com/2010/11/ecanvas/
More on Tetradian:
•Website: http://tetradian.com
•Weblog: http://weblog.tetradian.com
•Books: http://tetradianbooks.com
•Ebooks: http://leanpub.com/u/tetradian
•Slidedecks: http://www.slideshare.net/tetradian