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Enabling + Platforms =
Sustainable Continuous
Improvement
(Kandddinsky 2025)
Eduardo da Silva, PhD
Independent Consultant on Modernization
Organization Dynamics, Architecture and Leadership
(esilva.net consulting | [email protected])
esilva.net
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Enabling + Platforms =
Sustainable Continuous
Improvement
(Kandddinsky 2025)
Eduardo da Silva, PhD
Independent Consultant on Modernization
Organization Dynamics, Architecture and Leadership
(esilva.net consulting | [email protected])
esilva.net
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esilva.net
Enabling + Platforms =
Sustainable Continuous
Improvement
(Kandddinsky 2025)
Eduardo da Silva, PhD
Independent Consultant on Modernization
Organization Dynamics, Architecture and Leadership
(esilva.net consulting | [email protected])
More here soon:
https://esilva.net/enabling-and-platform
s-for-sustainable-improvement
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Modern
organizations
MUST learn and
improve fast(er)
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⚠ Most orgs operating
models do NOT support
dynamics for sustainable
continuous improvement
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Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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Needs & Demands
(external or internal)
should be the drivers
for change and the
required improvements
in our org and teams to
“respond”
esilva.net Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
esilva.net Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
esilva.net Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
Decision-Making:
“decide on designs
and be able to
take action to
respond”
esilva.net Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
Decision-Making:
“decide on designs
and be able to
take action to
respond”
🎯 we need to have the
necessary skills and capabilities
to “learn, design and decide”
and respond to the needs in the
environment
esilva.net Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
Decision-Making:
“decide on designs
and take action to
make things
happen”
Needs
(external)
Skills /
Capabilities
Needs
(internal)
Reponse
(external)
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Reponse
(internal)
esilva.net Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
Decision-Making:
“decide on designs
and be able to
take action to
respond”
Needs
(external)
Skills /
Capabilities
Needs
(internal)
Reponse
(external)
Reponse
(internal)
Needs→Skill/Capability→Response
(Teams & Org)
esilva.net
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
Decision-Making:
“decide on designs
and be able to
take action to
respond”
Needs
(external)
Skills /
Capabilities
Needs
(internal)
Reponse
(external)
Reponse
(internal)
Needs→Skill/Capability→Response
(Teams & Org)
esilva.net
💡Skills / Capabilities can be
many different things: software
engineering skills, methods,
tooling, ways-of-working
(including how we approach
architecture - check Architecture
Topologies for more on that), etc.
🎯the overall goal is to make sure
that our Org and Teams have
effective skills and capabilities to
sustainably respond to the needs
in the environment
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
Decision-Making:
“decide on designs
and be able to
take action to
respond”
Needs
(external)
Skill/
Capability
Needs
(internal)
Reponse
(external)
Reponse
(internal)
Needs→Skill/Capability→Response
(Teams & Org)
esilva.net
💡Skills / Capabilities can be
many different things: software
skills, methods, tooling,
ways-of-working (including how we
approach architecture - check
Architecture Topologies for more
on that), etc.
🎯the overall goal is to make sure
that our Org and Teams have
effective skills and capabilities to
sustainably respond to the needs
in the environment
🎯 next, I share some ideas to help orgs and
their teams approach this continuous work
of having effective skills / capabilities to
sustainably respond to environment needs
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Team Topologies
as a Language for
Continuous
Improvement
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💡”Needs → Skills / Capability → Response” - my current thinking model
to reflect on how “needs” can be used to anchor the needed “skills
/capabilities” to support effective “response” and value creation
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“Enabling”
new skills
and capabilities in
the organization
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❓how can we address these
situations, where multiple
teams are trying to build
something that requires a new
skill and/or missing capability?
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💡Option A: allow each team to
figure things out on their own
without any support to
accelerate addressing missing
skills/capabilities
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⚠ IMPORTANT NOTE:
I am not saying we should not
allow teams to explore things
on their own… quite the
opposite: how can we help
teams accelerate being
effective and independent
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⚠ “Return & Quality of
Investment (R&QoI)” typically
low:
⬇ teams will spend a lot of
time (and 💰💰💰)
⬇ the outcome is often times
of low quality (+“debt”)
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💡Option B: allow teams to figure
out things, but allow experts on
the topic to support teams
accelerate their up-skilling and
improving of missing capabilities
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Example: ⬆ data capabilities
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Example: ⬆ data capabilities
academy.teamtopologies.com
/courses
/effective-enabling-teams
More details:
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💡Def.: Enabling Activities
When an expert or a team with
expertize facilitates upskilling
and/or addressing a missing
capability
⚠ it does not need to be an official team
esilva.net
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✅ When we allow “Enabling
Activities” to happen we:
⬆ accelerate time to value
⬆ improve quality of the
solutions
💡Better Value Sooner
esilva.net
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esilva.net From: https://teamtopologies.com/news-blogs-newsletters/maximize-organizational-learning-return-on-investment-with-facilitating-interactions
And, for those managers
“complaining” about allowing
experts helping others
This work tends to actually lead
to saving costs too 💰💰💰
⚠ BUT, this requires incentives
+ thinking how to improve the
whole, not just your own team
⚠
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Principles & Heuristics
⚠ Focus on “Enabling
Behaviors” (or activities);
you don’t always need
official teams
✅ Provide space for
people that know about a
topic (“experts”) to help
others with challenges on
that topic
✅ Create sensing
mechanisms to understand
what are the most common
pains => prioritize enabling
activities on those
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💡often times, Enabling
Activities lead to discovering
“emerging capabilities” that
help support most teams in the
organization around a certain
“need”
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Example: ⬆ data capabilities
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🛑 Anti-pattern:
Leveraging Enabling Activities for
“indefinite support” of long-lived
capabilities around a certain topic
(e.g.: Enabling Team owning and evolving
tools or libraries for many teams)
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❓how can we enable scalable
support of those needed
emerging capabilities - arising
from the learnings of Enabling
Activities?
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Scaling
capabilities
and value creation
with Platforms
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🟢 It is OK (and desirable) to start framing some of
the emerging capabilities in the in the Enabling
Team; however if in time that is to be used by the
whole org it should be consolidated in a platform.
💡ING bank has this as a principle for their
Platforms strategy
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Example: ⬆ data capabilities
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Principles & Heuristics
✅ Platforms are strategic to
consolidate the “emergent
capabilities” that most
teams need to achieve fast
flow of value
✅ Platform investment is
a multiplying factor -
allows a large number of
teams to improve faster
(high R&QoI)
⚠ We do not consolidate all
things in platforms - we focus
on the “Thinest Viable
Platform” (TVP)
✅ Often times the experts driving the
early enabling activities on teams can
become the people joining and
shaping the platform teams building
the consolidated platform capability
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Enabling +
Platforms =
Sustainable
Continuous
Improvement
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New things benefit from
“pure enabling activities” -
help address the new
challenges; understand the
skills and capabilities to
address the needs
In time, we continue
enabling but also learn
about specific candidate
platform capabilities, which
most of our teams use to
work effectively on those
needs
We consolidate the common
capabilities to address
certain needs into shared
platforms; while leveraging
enabling activities to upskill
or address new challenges
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💡Enabling + Platform Pattern
Leverage Enabling Activities to
accelerate up-skilling & the
shaping of needed capabilities, and
if it makes sense scale them into a
“self-service platform”
💡this pattern happens for tools, techniques, ways-of-working,
etc.
esilva.net
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Learning:
“learning about
the problems &
opportunities in
the environment”
Designing:
“explore and
design options to
address the
problem or
opportunity”
Decision-Making:
“decide on designs
and take action to
make things
happen”
Needs
(external)
Skill/
Capability
Needs
(internal)
Reponse
(external)
Reponse
(internal)
(Teams & Org)
This will never stop ∞
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Summary
esilva.net
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Enabling Activities (cope with missing skills and
capabilities for new needs)
+
Platforms (consolidate emerging capabilities needed
by many teams)
=
Sustainable Continuous Improvement
(improve based on the environment needs we
have to respond)
esilva.net
Needs
(external)
Skill/
Capability
Needs
(internal)
Reponse
(external)
Reponse
(internal)
(Teams & Org)
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Enabling + Platforms =
Sustainable Continuous
Improvement
Eduardo da Silva, PhD
Independent Consultant on Modernization
Organization Dynamics, Architecture and Leadership
(esilva.net consulting | [email protected])
Thank you!
(reach out if you have questions)
(Soon) Companion article:
https://esilva.net/enabling-and-platforms-
for-sustainable-improvement
https://academy.teamtopologies.com
/courses
/effective-enabling-teams
esilva.net
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💡EXTRA EXAMPLE:
Towards sustainable
architecture capability
with Enabling + Platform
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For more details check:
https://esilva.net/talks/#ama_2025
esilva.net
💡these ideas can be applied not only to “technical skills and tools”, but also
to ways-of-working, including how we approach architecture modernization
or general improving architecture capability in organizations
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*Architecture Modernization Enabling Team
*
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Improvement
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Enabling + Platforms =
Sustainable Continuous
Improvement
Eduardo da Silva, PhD
Independent Consultant on Modernization
Organization Dynamics, Architecture and Leadership
(esilva.net consulting | [email protected])
Thank you!
(reach out if you have questions)
(Soon) Companion article:
https://esilva.net/enabling-and-platforms-
for-sustainable-improvement
https://academy.teamtopologies.com
/courses
/effective-enabling-teams
esilva.net