84 - Social Architecture - Why Bother?

Why is social architecture so important?

I’m writing about social architecture: the why, the components and the actions. This post is the why. Why worry about social architecture at all? It’s not a trivial question. It takes time to act on. All of that is time that could be spent on other work. The output of a manager is the output of the organisation under their supervision. Spending time on social architecture needs to pay off in terms of positive impact on that output, its quality and/or quantity.

The impact of a strong social architecture on output can be broken down into three areas:

• Motivation - it’s impossible to do one’s best work without motivation. A worthy mission, and positive values that people engage with, increase that motivation. That is the push. There is also the pull of a clear vision. People are more motivated when there is a target to work towards;

• Destination - if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably not going to get there. Clarity of vision, cascading down to the day to day, lowers the risk of wasting time heading down a blind alley. Values and behaviours, how we as a team agree to act in our work, positively impacts consistency, quality and speed with which that destination is reached;

• Distraction - or more to the point the lack thereof. Nature abhors a vacuum. Strength of social architecture is inversely correlated with politics. People have something more important to worry about. It also minimises the risk of hiring and retaining the wrong people. People are clear on what to hire for and what isn’t acceptable.