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Service Management Art offers readily available training programs, enabling you to take action on changes now. These programs are designed with you, your people and your customer in mind - and will contribute to your bottom line. |
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Change resistance
Most major changes in organizations demand a high degree of cooperation between groups. And if there have been hostilities in the past - say decades of management mistrust - building cooperation can be extremely challenging.
54 percent of wars between nations end in negotiated settlements, but only 24 percent of civil wars end that way. (Source: Reuter) Opponents in a civil war usually have to lay down arms before peace is reached. Once they do so, they both have to trust that the newly formed government will protect them. Since that government is likely to be under the control of the stronger side, the weaker side is left with no way back - if the peace breaks down.
It seems that the most inclusive approaches to change management do get people to work on "negotiated settlements" or to come up with plans together. But once the sheen is off the attention to this particular change, mistrust begins to creep back in. It has to be with power - or lack of it.
There is no easy answer, but here are some things I think are worth considering:
1. Mistrust usually runs deep and people are rightfully afraid to make deals with those they fear. Agreements made during planning meetings must be protected strongly by the most senior leaders.
2. It is easier for people to give lip service to agreement than it is to actually live by fine sounding words. (Look how many marriage vows turn out to be empty words. And those promises were made to people who were in love!) In planning meetings be thrilled when former warring parties even agree to minor concessions with each other. These are more likely to be sincere gestures.
3. Examine the structure/system/culture - call it what you will - that reinforces old behaviors. Often our organizations inadvertently reward some and punish others. Two groups can make a real effort to work together, only to find that the organization is used to the old ways of working. And pretty soon things are back to the status quo.
Managing change is an art!
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Two new employees join Service Management Art!
Diane Langlois
 Diane
brings our team over 28 years of experience in Information Technology
with an in-depth knowledge of ITIL IT Service Management. She has
worked in many large enterprise organizations covering many industries
such as utilities, cable and telecommunications, retail,
pharmaceutical, and health insurance. Diane carries a diverse portfolio
of experience including the successful design and implementation of
many of the ITIL Service Support processes, as well as Operational
Acceptance, Release and Capacity Management. She has also been
responsible for the development and implementation of Quality Assurance
Standards and Processes; SDLC Testing Standards and Management;
Software Distribution and Application Certification Processes; and
Business Metrics/Measures aligned with Organizational Balanced
Scorecards.
While she is traveling across the country to work
with clients, Diane maintains her fitness regime of workouts, running
between 8 and 10 km at least 5 times a week. She loves to re-landscape
her yard and re-decorate her house when she is home and spend time with
her family, and of course shopping!
Farah Remtulla
 Farah
brings a fresh spin on the world of process development and design from
the "Generation Y" perspective; she has vast experience in the space of
process design and implementation, from Service Support through to
Service Delivery. Farah has worked closely with the Oil & Gas
Sector and more recently, in the financial space and has been involved
in many ITSM projects, specifically with integrating Service Management
toolsets with process. With a knack for numbers, Farah has successfully
taken organizations down measurement lane, helping organizations to
define meaningful metrics, ensuring their alignment between the wants
and needs of "IT versus the Business". Farah has also spent a vast
amount of time designing and providing ITIL Foundations training, but
be forewarned - you will never be able to 'just' sit in your seat!
Farah
likes to spend her free time being involved in community projects and
cheering for her home town team, the Edmonton Oilers. Farah is
convinced; she is probably one of the most dedicated Oiler fans
residing in Calgary. She also has a passion for East-Indian Dancing,
running her own production company in both Edmonton & Calgary.
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Peter's Power Play
Irritation or improvements?
I am reading the ITIL v3 books and my mood will change from excitement (about some changes) to depression (about some other changes). Not so different from driving in my hometown Calgary. I have been living in Calgary now for about 3 years. I love the city and especially the nature around this city (excitement). Like any other city we have our challenges with trying to cope with change and maintenance (depression).
So while standing still on 16 Avenue (if you do not know Calgary substitute with any other major road in your town) I started to think: Is this so different than what our IT users go through? As a user of the road infrastructure we feel like the city does not do any proper planning. Why do we have all this construction going on?
When one part is fixed they will start breaking up another road. We do not like to be the victim of change. We want everything to go smooth. And then I realized: I am only seeing the service transition and service operation part - two parts of ITIL v3.
I do not have an insight in the rest of the service lifecycle of road services. I have no clue what the actual design is - I have never bothered to investigate - would the road workers know? Do they care? Let alone that we know what the strategy is for road services. This is actually a political minefield I will stay away from. Not understanding the full service lifecycle (Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, Continual Service Improvement) will create confusion.
Proper communication to operational staff about strategy and design will be necessary to take away the confusion, but that does not mean that operational staff needs to know the ins-and-outs of the strategy and design processes.
While traffic started to flow again I came to the conclusion that the ITIL v3 Foundation course will not be useful for teaching operational staff what ITIL is all about. While with ITIL v2 organizations would train the whole IT department, I would strongly advice against that with v3. Only specific staff will need the whole lifecycle overview. But this of course undermines the whole certification process. but maybe someone will come to their senses and come up with a service transition and operation certification. That will be enough for most students. - Yes, it is an art!
Service Management Art Peter Lijnse |
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BOOK REVIEW
"Metrics for IT Service Management". (by Farah)
 We all have heard the infamous quote, "You can't manage what you don't measure" and organizations generally seem to accept this statement. The question is how many organizations action this statement? 'IT Service Management Metrics' is a grand feast of metrics that satisfies any appetite for IT Reporting.
This book provides excellent suggestions on what types of metrics IT organizations can implement, why they are important, suggested target values and methods of measure with its strength in the core metrics for ITIL Service Management Processes. The book also provides some measurements related to other areas such as ICT Management and Project Management.
This is a recommended reading for organizations who would like to learn about the plethora of metrics available to them and the value the measurements can bring to their business. At the same time, it is a strong tool in aiding organizations who are undergoing process improvement, implementing scorecards or want to understand if their current metrics are truly meaningful to their business.
Buy this book now! |
TRAINING
ITIL v3 Foundation, July 23 - 25 in Calgary. Please call 403 208 7163 for registrations (if you still think it is valuable after reading Peter's Power Play)
ITIL Service Manager Course Fall 2007 - ITIL V2
Locations: Vancouver and Calgary
Week 1: September 10 - 14, 2007
Week 2: October 15 - 19, 2007
Week 3: November 13 - 16, 2007
The top reasons for doing the ITIL v2 service manager course this year:
1. Most ITIL implementations only address a few processes - these are all part of version 2, so why wait if you need the knowledge on how to use ITIL in your organization now?
2. To get to the ITIL (v3) Diploma you can use the v2 service manager. According to the APMG website this is a shorter and easier path than the v3 path.
It will be a lot cheaper to do v2 now and less time consuming.
3. Our training sessions are focused on learning how to use ITIL in organizations, this means we are providing a lot of consulting experience that you can utilize in your daily work. Besides that we also ensure that you will receive sufficient information to pass the certification.
But we also want to warn you: There is a lot of studying involved outside the training sessions (on average 200 hours). We will get you the information to succeed - you need to spend the time.
The best person to ask additional questions around this training: the person that just did the exam. If you do not know anyone, contact us and we will bring you in contact with one or two of our students.
Please contact us for more details or registration: 403 208 7163 / info@servicemanagementart.com |
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Service Management Art
Peter Lijnse
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