Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

“Think Different”

We’ve been asked again and again what to do in situations like the following:

I’ve had a few successes, but I’m frustrated. I don’t know what I can do to get all the business units to work together. I’ve tried the “carrot” approach, but I can’t provide enough of an incentive to get anyone to take note and cooperate—this degree of collaboration isn’t typical to our corporate culture anyway. And I don’t have the authority or senior level backing—much less the stomach—to wield a big “stick” and force people to follow a common plan for designing an enterprise information architecture.

There are a few problems with this sort of thinking. The first is the folly of believing that everyone within the enterprise will ever work together; this is highly improbable, if not impossible. It’s also a much less important goal than getting the right people to work together.

The second problem is impatience. We’re quick to get frustrated by trying to change a huge organization’s behavior and entrenched habits over the course of a few months. We’re simply not being fair to ourselves. Centralizing an enterprise information architecture is comparable to turning a rudderless oil tanker 180 degrees by sticking your foot in the water—the tanker will eventually turn around, but it could take years, perhaps long after you’ve departed the scene.

The third is thinking that anything organizationally significant can truly happen without the participation of senior decision-makers. When the opportunity ...