Enterprise Design Patterns | Practice Patterns
#23: Dancing to Enterprise Rhythms
“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”
- Maya Angelou
Related Patterns:
#2: Pre-existing Wisdom, #4: Executive Buy-In, #7: Safe Negotiation Space, #24: Corporate Politics
You need to know when to influence as much as what to influence for a deep and lasting impact.
In this context:
Being unaware of the rhythms and cycles the enterprise operates in, you run the risk of mistiming your efforts to influence your co-creators. Decision-makers meet in regular intervals. Budgets are allocated on a regular basis. Major programs are started every few years whereas smaller initiatives may be started more often. External factors impact the rhythms of the enterprise, such a seasonal variation, market fluctuations and global events. You may find that important decisions were made before you could inform and prepare the relevant co-creators. Or you may want to go faster than they are prepared to move or go too slow in their eyes.
Therefore:
You make sure you understand the pace and rhythms of the enterprise and the forces that influence them. You take care to:
- Know your co-creators’ meeting and reporting schedules;
- Understand the external rhythms and fluctuations that impact the enterprise’s rhythms;
- Plan your interactions with your co-creators for the best possible timing and maximum impact so you can benefit from the momentum of decisions and initiatives running in synchrony and alignment with your interactions.
Consequently:
Your understanding of the rhythms of the enterprise within its ecosystem allows you to synchronise your interactions with your co-creators. You time your plans to match the enterprise’s planning and execution cycles. You have advice and deliverables ready when your co-creators are most receptive to them.