Facilitating Software Architecture

Chapter 16. On Leadership

With all the decentralization of power going on, you may have gotten the impression that there was no space in the advice process for leadership. But as Peter Drucker, the renowned 20th-century management theorist, is widely quoted as saying, “Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.”

I completely agree.

As you transition to a decentralized approach to architecture, leadership is essential, and leadership continues to be essential once the metamorphosis is complete. In fact, just as a decentralized approach to the practice of architecture results in more architecture, the same can be said of leadership.

Yet I’ve barely mentioned leadership in the book so far. This chapter redresses that imbalance, starting by clarifying what leadership isn’t before discussing leadership approaches that don’t decentralize deciding and self-organizing, self-managing, self-sustaining teams.

I’ll then clarify where this leadership is required during the transition to a decentralized approach to architecture. I’ll show how it’s not just in the practice of architecture but also in the deciding and in the creating and realizing of strategy. Leadership is also needed to establish and maintain the social contract as well as to foster a culture of inclusion and to establish and protect safety. (I’d argue this last one is the most important; otherwise, why did you even decentralize in ...