Why Drawing the Same System Reveals Different Architectures

We often assume that architects working on the same system share the same understanding of its structure. They're looking at the same code, attending the same meetings — surely they see the same thing. But what happens when you actually test that assumption?

That's the challenge Aino Corry faced when she was brought into a large American company to help a team of architects understand their monolith before breaking it into microservices. When she asked for a full day, the response was skeptical: "A whole day? We're just gonna look at some diagrams." But Aino held firm. Drawing on work with Simon Brown, she gave the architects a deceptively simple task: draw the component diagram of the monolith from memory, without looking at the code. Then they put every diagram on the wall — and walked the line. The surprise was immediate. Architects who'd been working on the same system for years had fundamentally incompatible mental models of its core structure. Using the liberating structure 1-2-4-All, Aino turned that surprise into a conversation unlike any they'd had before — one where not knowing became acceptable, and the quiet voices finally had room to speak.

This conversation explores how externalising individual mental models creates richer architectural discussions, why structured facilitation changes who gets heard, how to handle the vocal skeptic who thinks you've wasted their day, and the consultant's dilemma of never quite knowing if your workshop made a lasting difference — unless you happen to have a spy in the organisation you drink red wine with.

Key Discussion Points

• [00:01] Setting the Stage: Aino explains how she came to facilitate architecture workshops even though she's no longer a practicing architect — and why the same facilitation dynamics apply regardless of domain
• [00:02] A Whole Day? Really?: The team's resistance to spending a full day on understanding before doing, and why Aino insisted on it
• [00:04] Draw What You Know: The deceptively simple exercise of drawing the monolith's component diagram from memory — without looking at the code
• [00:05] Walking the Wall: The moment architects discovered their mental models of the same system were fundamentally incompatible
• [00:08] You Can't Win Them All: How one vocal skeptic dismissed the day as a waste of time, while newer team members found it invaluable
• [00:12] The Champion Skeptic: Aino reflects on what she'd do differently now — using Linda Rising's pattern to redirect skepticism into constructive energy
• [00:16] The Consultant's Dilemma: How do you know if your workshop actually made a difference once you've left the building?
• [00:22] To Understand Everything Is to Forgive Everything: Why seeing each other's mental models changed judgment into curiosity

Guest: Aino Corry Hosts: Kenny Schwegler, Andrea Magnorsky