The world is changing faster than one might think, or at least it appears this way … and nobody seems to do solution architecture anymore.

And plenty of organizations seem to have given up on planning what they are doing and changing in their system landscape, organizations, processes, etc. But that is wrong. You need to describe the changes so that you can agree on things and everyone is on the same page (and understands the direction, goals, and measurements going forward).

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• A quick review of Season 8, and what happens here at What’s Your Baseline?
• What is solution architecture?
• How does it fit into the solution lifecycle
• Benefits of having a solution architecture
• Where in the organization should solution architects be located?
• The network of solution architectures and how to manage those
• What do you need to do solution architecture in your organization (tools, approach)?
• Elements/steps when creating the solution architecture
• How do you implement this capability (waterfall, agile, devops)?

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

Some folks go to work and are drained before they even turn on their computer, and they cannot figure out why that is when all the aspects of the job seem to be fine — the tasks, the title, the money. What they don't see is that the managers might be the reason, and that the managers miss emotional intelligence — the ability to “read the room” — and cannot adjust their behavior (and therefore are “off”).

This challenge is why we speak with Steve Ponting, who is thinking hard about this topic and is a great advocate for org change management and the way how we as humans behave (and he gives us a brief intro into the three major professional steps that brought him there at the beginning of the episode).

Steve is a strategically minded go-to-market leader at ARIS, and he guides cross-functional teams to position our capabilities with enterprise clients across multiple regions. He is recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice and featured across leading publications and major platforms including CNBC, Steve combines strategic vision, operational acumen, and industry insight to deliver lasting impact.

He's passionate about helping organizations adapt, scale, and lead through change. Having gathered over 10 years' experience in direct and in-direct leadership (managing managers), Steve fosters high-performance cultures, promotes innovation through a fail-fast mindset, and enables cross-functional collaboration.

As a technology generalist, Steve's career spans senior roles across both industry and enterprise software. From serving as an IT Director to leading technical sales teams at portfolio software firms, he has developed a practical understanding of how to connect business needs with technical solutions.

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Steve's background
• What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and why is it important?
• Is EQ still needed in these times of advanced technology (AI)? What happens with the people, and what are the impacts on the organizations and their customers?
• How to recognize/measure emotional intelligence
• How to get people to develop EQ and the positive benefits — purpose, belonging, and autonomy
• Where will the future go?

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Steve can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-ponting/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here:

Have you noticed transformation fatigue in your organization? The feeling that you run faster and faster, and have to do more with less, while you don't accomplish the results of the changes that you were out for?
Well, one aspect of that might be that you haven't “picked up” the folks in your organization where they are, and now they are working silently against the positive change that you want to instill. In the past, this was a simple concept, but today it is difficult to manage. That is why we invited Neelesh to our show so that he can share his years of org change management experience with us.

Neelesh is an Operational Excellence Leader with 18+ years of experience driving enterprise-wide transformation, automation, and performance optimization for Fortune 500 firms in financial services, banking, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and high-tech.

He's a proven expert in end-to-end process improvement, digital transformation, intelligent automation, and large-scale operational strategy, leading global teams to streamline workflows, enhance efficiency, and reduce costs. Neelesh specializes in scaling process excellence initiatives, integrating AI, process mining, and automation to drive sustainable business impact.

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Neelesh's background
• The resistance to change — the “why” … and the lack of a “change muscle” in organizations
• Did the approach to OCM change over the years?
• The change curve and the “never-ending change” today — take a break and celebrate milestones
• How can change be decelerated to a more “human pace”? (Spoiler alert: not likely)
• Best practices in OCM
• Setting up communities / safe space
• The role of managers in change — bottom-up vs. top-down changes

Neelesh is active on LinkedIn and can be reached here: linkedin.com/in/neeleshharmalker.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.