Why Box Diagrams Are Not Architecture

From McKInsey, Gartner decks to your organizatio, we've accepted rectangles as a substitute for real enterprise thinking. It's time to end the theater.

Ever seen a human anatomy chart reduced to a few rectangles in a row? No depth, no interconnections—just color blocks labeled “Nervous,” “Digestive,” “Respiratory.”

Imagine handing that to a surgeon. That’s what many enterprises are doing today—with reference architectures that look good but explain nothing.

Enterprise Architecture isn’t about aligning boxes. It’s about aligning functions, flows, timing, and dependencies—just like real anatomy.

What Real Anatomy Shows Us

• Nervous system doesn’t just “exist”—it signals, reacts, adapts.

• Digestive system isn’t a block—it’s a time-sequenced, input-driven pathway.

  Heart and blood work on pacing and reach, not standalone “capabilities.”

What the Box Diagrams Miss

• No timing or sequencing

• No cause-effect flow

• No explanation of what fails when one part breaks

• No leverage points or systemic constraints

• Just components… not systems

If Doctors Used This Logic, the Body Wouldn’t Survive.

Imagine walking into a hospital and being shown a diagram with a few labeled rectangles: Heart, Brain, Lungs.

”No connections. No flow. No function. Just colors and borders.

Now imagine the doctor says: “Don’t worry. This is our reference anatomy. We follow Gartner.”

You’d run.

But in enterprise architecture? We applaud. We call it “best practice.”

Around the world, we’ve normalized a cartoon version of enterprise anatomy—and it’s wasting time, money, and the opportunity to truly understand how an enterprise works.

The Seductive Illusion of Boxes

Boxes are tidy. They fit on slides. They feel like progress.

But let’s be clear: A color-coded rectangle is a layout, not a model.

It shows parts, not systems.It organizes names, not behaviors.

What’s missing?

• No timing: What happens when, and in what sequence?

• No causality: What breaks when something shifts?

• No leverage: Where can one small move create a large impact?

  
  

Architecture without these is just a prettier org chart.

McKinsey or Gartner Invent This. But They Perfected It.

Let’s be fair—Gartner didn’t start this trend. But they helped industrialize it.

Their reference models are everywhere.

Their magic quadrants, colorful frameworks, and one-size-fits-all templates have become the default in boardrooms.

But ask this: Can any of those frameworks explain how a regulatory change in Risk impacts customer pricing, system logic, and cash flow timing across 8 countries?

No.

Because they weren’t designed for enterprises. They were designed for slides.

Anatomy Is More Than Parts

In real anatomy:

• The heart doesn’t work in isolation—it responds to demand, oxygen levels, and nervous system signals.
  

• The brain processes in patterns, reacts to pain, triggers cascades.
  

• One clot can bring everything down.

Human anatomy isn’t a list of body parts—it’s a coordinated system under pressure. Enterprise architecture should be no different.

Instead, we’ve settled for:

• Data Layer

• Process Layer

• Integration Layer

With no real model of how those layers function together under changing conditions.

Global Case Studies in Comedy

This isn’t theory. Here’s what’s happening around the world:

• A Middle East airline called its IT refresh “Enterprise Architecture”—3 departments touched. 12 left out. The planes ran on instinct, not instrumentation.
  

• A bank spent 4 years mapping “capabilities” in PowerPoint. Still couldn’t answer which departments should respond first in a liquidity crunch.
  

• A global FMCG proudly showed 22 rectangles labeled “Digital Core” across 40 countries. Nobody could explain what they actually did.
  

We’re not just decorating boxes. We’re institutionalizing confusion.

What Real Architecture Looks Like

It shows:

• Flows, not labels

• Leverage points, not placeholders

• Sequencing, feedback, and rhythm

• How one change reshapes multiple systems in motion

It’s not glamorous. But it works. That’s what Enterprise Anatomy is about.

Not simplifying complexity into rectangles. But making the enterprise visible—so strategy, design, operations, and change can operate from the same model.

It’s Time to Grow Up

We’re not in 1998 anymore. The enterprise is not a stack of boxes. It’s a living system—interconnected, adaptive, and fragile when misunderstood.

So next time you see a diagram full of tidy rectangles, ask yourself:

Would this pass in medical school?

If not, maybe it shouldn’t pass in the boardroom either.