Tag Archives: CIO

AI, ESM, ITSM

Will AI break ITSM out of its IT operations cage?

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AI is about to break ITSM from its IT operations cage.

Many ITSM implementations are less about service management, and more about IT operations, or IT process management, or IT measures and reports. Here are some examples:

  • To many organizations, ITSM is about a weekly meeting to discuss changes to the computing infrastructure, attended by people that have little qualification or authority to discuss, much less approve such changes.
  • To many organizations, ITSM is about pulling together a group of individuals, sitting them down in front of computer screens and telephones, calling that group of people a “service desk”, then provide little training and less enablement for responding to all IT-related issues or questions.
  • To many organizations, ITSM is about establishing a portal through which consumers of technology can register requests for the IT organization to fulfill.
  • To many organizations, ITSM is about implementing a tool, several out-of-the-box workflows (that may or may not be suitable for the organization) and publishing a few reports that have no meaning to anyone outside of IT.

In other words, for these organizations, ITSM is not about the organization at all. ITSM is not about how people, process, and technology deliver business outcomes and enable business value realization. In these organizations, ITSM is about IT.

AI is about to change all of that.

AI will push ITSM front and center

Frankly, AI can nail (has nailed) down the operational aspects of ITSM. Current AI capabilities are well-suited to take on many of the operational aspects of ITSM, like routing work, resolving simple incidents, gathering, analyzing, and logging information, tracking assets, suggesting knowledge articles to resolve an end-user issue, and more.

And that’s the challenge that introducing AI will have for organizations that adopted ITSM only to manage IT operations. With the use of AI, IT will become increasingly visible to the rest of the organization. As a result, ITSM can no longer be a “back office” activity, but rather “front-and-center” as organizations navigate within a digital world. But are IT and organizations ready?

When IT cannot articulate how its products and services deliver business results and enable value realization (beyond cost savings/avoidance), the answer is “no”.

Why is this a problem?

The fact is that many ITSM implementations have ignored the very practices that would enable the “business value and outcomes” conversation with executives. Practices like portfolio management and service catalog, (real) problem management, and continual improvement, for example.

Because these practices have been ignored, IT organizations cannot discuss topics like service cost models. They can tell you what infrastructure costs, or how much is being paid out on support contracts and licensing costs…but not what makes up the specific costs of designing, delivering, maintaining, and supporting services. They can’t predict how investing in improvements will benefit the larger organization and ultimately the business customer. They can’t correlate business value streams to specific IT products and services that enable business results.

Some implementations have isolated service management activities that should be approached from a holistic perspective. In many organizations, service design activities are typically performed by application development teams that are focused on writing code, but with little or no involvement from those that will be supporting or using the solution post-implementation.  Another example is organizations that perform software deployments to production environments outside of the purview of an ITSM change management practice.

It gets worse. According to this Forrester post, organizations that have invested in ITSM are finding that more and more of those investments are going toward paying additional costs from maintaining the tools rather than improving ITSM capabilities and driving business benefit.

AI will force Service Management to be an organizational capability

Service management has typically been considered an IT function, but in an ever-increasing digital world, that just won’t work. Service management must be an organizational capability.

For service management to be truly effective, it must reflect and support entire organizational value streams, not just the IT portions. Technology is no longer department specific. Technology connects entire value streams within all organizations. But it doesn’t stop there; in the digital ecosystem, it’s technology that connects organizations to partner organizations to deliver products and services. If enterprise-wide workflows that support value delivery all the way to the customer are missing or undefined, the result is a bunch of disjointed, siloed activities that result in a poor customer experience, missed business opportunities, and loss of competitive capability.

AI will manage the operational aspects of service management, and push ITSM out of the back office. Businesses must start now to elevate their organizational service management capabilities.

Breaking ITSM from its IT operations cage

What first steps should organizations take to begin to make service management an organizational capability? Here are some suggestions:

  • Invest in training – One of the challenges with current ITSM implementations is that the people involved in the delivery and support of products and service have not been properly trained in service management concepts. Rather, they blindly follow whatever the ITSM tool does, and do not understand the broader concepts and contexts of “service management.”
  • Map organizational (not just IT) workflows – Develop value stream maps or customer journey maps to illustrate how work moves through the organization or where customers interact with the organization. Include the touchpoints where people, processes, and technology enable the business results and value desired by the organization. These maps capture information that is foundational for developing a service catalog.
  • Identify business measures – Using these completed maps, identify the performance measures that reflect business outcomes and value.

The era of AI is not just an upgrade for ITSM – it’s a complete transformation for organizations.  As AI takes over the operational heavy lifting, ITSM’s true purpose can no longer be confined to just IT.  Instead, service management must evolve into a core organizational capability, seamlessly connecting people, process, and technology across entire value streams to deliver real business outcomes. This shift is not optional; it’s essential for organizations that want to thrive in a digital world where technology is the backbone of value delivery and customer experience.

Now is the time for organizations to break free from legacy mindsets, invest in holistic training, map out end-to-end workflows, and measure what truly matters to the business. By doing so, they can ensure that service management becomes a strategic enabler – one that drives innovation, agility, and competitive advantage in the age of AI.

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ITSM

Why your ITSM house of cards is a bad deal for your business

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Is your ITSM implementation like a house of cards, prone to fail with the slightest disturbance?  Here’s some examples:

  • A request for change that isn’t appropriately vetted yet is implemented within the live environment. Subsequently, that implemented change results in an extended outage of a critical business system.
  • Service interruptions are characterized by frantic efforts to restore service, cause analysis exercises that produce more theater than substance, and lost opportunities for improvement.
  • A seemingly simple service request that requires extraordinary effort and time to fulfill.
  • An IT organization that is surprised when the failure of a third party’s product or service cripples the business.

ITSM, done well, delivers effective and efficient services and practices based on the use of technology.  Done well, ITSM connects IT efforts and technology investments to business results and strategy.

Instead, what many ITSM implementations produce (or reinforce) is siloed behavior, disjointed delivery efforts, lack of transparency, and poor end-user satisfaction. Further exasperating the situation is that in many cases, IT doesn’t even understand how what it does enables business results and value realization.

Why does bad ITSM happen within good IT organizations?

Every IT organization has talented people who are knowledgeable, smart, and have outstanding technical skills. These people are motivated to be the absolute best that they can be and are driven to  succeed. Good ITSM should augment the efforts of these talented people and enhance the overall performance of the IT organization. ITSM should help the IT organization become a valued, respected, and competitive differentiator for a business.

Sadly, this is not the case with many IT organizations. Many implementations have fallen short of achieving the benefits of good ITSM and wasted the talents and efforts of people within IT because the foundational elements needed for success are missing. What are some attributes of a “house of cards”  ITSM implementation?

  • Taking only a “technology-first” approach – While having the appropriate tools are important, good ITSM doesn’t result only from the implementation of technology. With a technology-first approach, ITSM thinking becomes limited to the capabilities of the technology, and not how ITSM should meet the needs of the business.
  • No alignment to organizational strategy – ITSM implementation is about IT, not about how IT efforts and provided technologies enable the achievement of business goals and objectives. Other than justifying the organization’s investment in the selected technology, there is no business case that was developed to help executives recognize the value of the investments in ITSM.
  • No shared and agreed understanding of ITSM benefits – Some organizations believe that ITSM is just something “that the service desk does” for processing a user request or managing an incident. Making a bad situation worse is that many within IT think that ITSM has nothing to do with the work that they are doing.

How did this happen?

There are several reasons why ITSM is no more than a house of cards for many organizations.

Many ITSM implementations suffer from short-term thinking, prioritizing technology implementation over business value and employee experience, or even worse, prioritizing internal IT concerns over business results.

A house of cards ITSM implementation is often the result of inconsistent processes and a lack of governance, exasperated by poorly designed, implemented, and unenforced policies.  As a result, different parts of the IT organization manage its work differently, making transparency into IT difficult.

In most fragile implementations, ITSM was treated as an IT initiative, not a business initiative.  Had business stakeholders been involved from the beginning, ITSM would be business-oriented, with reports and measures that matter. Instead, ITSM became a layer of bureaucracy for interacting with IT.

Regardless of how it happened, there’s been no reason for senior business management to care about ITSM – until now.

Why business executives need to care

Historically, many senior business executives have paid little attention to service management – and understandably so. Reports contained data that had no meaning to executives. Performance metrics produced by IT said one thing, but end-users told a vastly different story regarding their experiences with technology and processes. ITSM was viewed simply as something being done at the service desk. With so many foundational elements missing, many ITSM implementations gave executives little reason to care.

But times are changing – and changing fast.

Businesses are rapidly and increasingly relying on technology to drive the business –  and the customer experience – to new horizons.  With ever increasing frequency, customers are interacting with technology, such as intelligent automation, chatbots, natural language processing, and generative AI, and not with humans.

But without good ITSM, how can an organization ensure that technology is delivering the desired value and outcomes needed by both the business and its customers? There are many known cases (including the UK’s NHS IT program[i], Canada’s Phoenix Pay System[ii], and Knight Capital Group software deployment[iii]) where businesses that ignored good service management practices and have experienced significant and embarrassing failures.

The fact is that today’s digitally driven businesses require good ITSM for business success. The question that was usually never answered remains – how will your ITSM implementation support your business’ strategy?

Today is a good day to prepare for the ITSM of tomorrow

Good ITSM is more relevant today than ever for modern, digital businesses. Here are three steps for moving ITSM from a house of cards to a reliable and solid business capability.

  • Develop a business capability map. A business capabilities map is a visual tool used to depict what a business does, not how it does it. A business capability describes the capacity, materials, and expertise an organization has or needs to complete its work.[iv] One of the things that makes a business capability so interesting from an ITSM perspective is that capabilities have outcomes.
  • Conduct an ITSM capability assessment. Not to be confused with a maturity assessment, a capability assessment evaluates the organization’s service management abilities, capacity, and skills. Do not limit this assessment to IT operations – look at ITSM capabilities holistically, from strategy through design, development, transition, and continual improvement.
  • Do a gap analysis between the business capability map and the ITSM capability assessment. What areas of business capability are well-supported by good ITSM practices? Where are the gaps between business capabilities and ITSM capabilities? What are the impacts of those gaps? What needs to be done differently from an ITSM perspective to meet the demands and requirements of those business capabilities?

Stop relying on an ITSM approach that is built as a house of cards. Completing the above steps will start your ITSM implementation on an incredible transformation to strategic capability, both for the organization and for IT.

[i] Asgarkhani, M. (2022). Failed tech deployment initiatives: Is poor IT governance to blame? European Conference on Management Leadership and Governance, 18(1), 524–528. https://doi.org/10.34190/ecmlg.18.1.728

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] https://dougseven.com/2014/04/17/knightmare-a-devops-cautionary-tale/

[iv] https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/a-quick-guide-to-business-capability-maps , Retrieved February 2024.

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ITSM

Is your ITSM approach looking through the windshield…or at the rear-view mirror?

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“In the business world, the rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

Sadly, this 1991 Warren Buffet quote applies to many ITSM implementations. Why?

Because the focus of those ITSM implementations is on what has happened, instead of what is happening.

Think about it. Our respective businesses are focused on the view through the metaphorical windshield. The view through the “windshield” represents both what is happening now and the journey ahead. And while the future is unknown, businesses try to create the future by establishing goals and objectives. From a business perspective, the possibilities and opportunities for success are typically found when the organization is looking through the windshield.

Continuing the metaphor, the focus of so many ITSM implementations is the rear-view mirror – a view of what has happened. Make no mistake – trending and performance reports, monitoring tools that deliver event alerts, and recently-written knowledge articles are important contributors to good ITSM. But those reports, tools, and articles are typically inwardly focused, discussing items and topics that are relevant and meaningful only to the IT organization. In other words, those ITSM implementations are more focused on yesterday and less on the future.

The impact of always looking in the rear-view mirror

Why is the “rear-view” perspective an obstacle for ITSM implementations? I would argue that the perspective of continually looking back is not aligned with business goals and objectives. This is one of the factors between ITSM being perceived as a business enabler versus ITSM viewed as a costly expense.

It comes down to this question – what does your business perceive as “value”? Candidly, business value is rarely – if ever – found by looking in the rear-view mirror. In my experience, businesses perceive value when actions taken within the organization result in achieving business  mission, vision, goals, and objectives (MVGO). Businesses perceive value when the data captured, used, and maintained within the organization produces information that enables timely, fact-based decision-making. Businesses perceive value as innovation, responsiveness to the market, increased revenues and profitability, delivering a differentiated experience, and standing out from competitors.

Shifting the ITSM view to the windshield

Does your ITSM implementation enable your business? How does your ITSM implementation help the organization to achieve its MVGO? For many organizations, ITSM is more about IT and less about their businesses. Few organizations (in my experience) develop and maintain a service portfolio, much less a service catalog. I rarely find ITSM implementations reporting measures that relate to the business objectives; rather, most measures and reports align to internally defined IT performance targets.

I’m not suggesting that IT departments stop supporting and delivering the operational aspects of ITSM. I am suggesting, however, that ITSM implementations expand their scope to include the “windshield”. The mindset must shift from seeing ITSM as a means of control or just implementing some tool. The mindset must shift to viewing ITSM as a business enabler.

This means that ITSM implementations must become more strategic from a business perspective. Strategy is about aligning resources and efforts to achieve organizational goals – in other words, looking through the windshield, not just the rear-view mirror.

Shifting the ITSM view to the windshield

Here are some tips for shifting ITSM from just a “rear-view” mirror perspective to also include the windshield.

  • Learn the business of your business. By understanding the business, IT professionals can make informed decisions, improve their communications with non-IT colleagues and become more proactive in developing technology-based proposals for growing and improving business activities.
  • Understand how people, processes, and technology (PPT) enable business outcomes. How does (or can) people, process, and technology enable the organization to achieve its MVGO? What are the vital business functions of the organization? How does PPT enable those business functions?
  • Think and act in terms of business outcomes. How can (or does) ITSM enable or deliver the business results that impact MVGO? Having answers to this question will help shift the perspective and perception of ITSM to a more strategic and business-aligned capability.
  • Measure and report things that are relevant and meaningful to your business. Frankly, no one outside of IT cares how quickly the service desk responds to requests or how many incidents are closed. Identify, measure, and report on metrics that have an impact on the business of the business.
  • Shift SLAs from an IT operational focus to a business focus. In my experience, what many ITSM implementations call a “Service Level Agreement” (SLA) are neither agreed with anyone outside of IT, or discuss the business impacts of IT services. Unfortunately, this is an approach that is deeply engrained within many ITSM implementations. Begin the shift by working with non-IT colleagues to map a frequently followed value stream. Doing this will result in a mutual understanding of the value stream, the business drivers, and success criteria. Use this information to then document and agree a business-focused SLA for that value stream.

In many organizations, ITSM has not achieved its potential. Part of the reason for that is that those ITSM implementations are too focused on the past and only on the IT organization. What could be possible if those ITSM implementations also look ahead rather than just looking behind?

Need some help shifting your ITSM perspective from just the rear-view mirror to what is happening now and ahead?  Let Tedder Consulting and our proven and impactful approach change your ITSM environment to a business enabler.  Contact us today!

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ITSM, Leadership, Organizational Change

Nothing will change. Unless you change.

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A few years ago, I was invited to conduct an ITSM assessment for an organization. While the request itself wasn’t unusual, it was unusual in that I had conducted an ITSM assessment for that same organization a few years prior. The  IT leadership of the organization had not changed over that time, apart from a different person leading their ITSM adoption efforts. But I was intrigued by the prospect of revisiting a past client engagement to learn whether my previous recommendations had had the positive impact that I had determined was possible.

After conducting interviews, examining their ITSM policies and procedures,  reviewing their IT strategy, and evaluating their ITSM performance reports, I was disappointed to find that there had been no substantial change in their ITSM journey from when I first visited.

I confronted the CIO with my findings. During our conversation, he acknowledged that there had not been much progress in their ITSM journey. He went on to ask if I would simply just tell them exactly what they needed to do, based on my “deep” knowledge of his organization.

I was taken aback. It had been a few years since that first assessment. Over the course of the two engagements,  I had spent about a total of 30 days interacting with the organization – hardly what I would consider a qualification for having a “deep knowledge” of the organization.

So, I took a deep breath, looked the CIO in the eye, and told him that – that I felt that 30 days of engagement over a few years doesn’t constitute a “deep” knowledge of the organization. Further, it was not an issue of not knowing what needed to be done – what needed to be done was clearly outlined in both assessment reports. The issue was that no one – including the CIO – wanted to change.

And then I said it.

“Nothing will change unless there is change.”

And with that, our meeting ended. I packed up my laptop,  left the building, drove away….and  subsequently was not invited back.

Everybody wants change. No one wants *to* change.

I see it all the time. People within an organization get enthusiastic about making a change, improving what is currently being done, expanding and enhancing their capabilities, thinking in terms of possibilities. Excitement fills the discussions within the conference rooms. People leave meetings eager to get started.

And then the time comes for the work that needs to be done to make the change….and sadly, things often go kaput.

What happened?

The 3 U’s of failed change

I’m no psychologist, but from everything that I have read, experienced, and observed about failed change, it seems to come down to the basic human instinct of fear of change. In my experience, that fear of change presents itself in one or more of the following symptoms that I call the “three U’s of failed change”.

  • Unknown – Change pulls people out of their personal comfort zones, where they feel safe. According to this article, this uncertainty feels like failure to our brains, and our brains automatically work to prevent us from failing.
  • Unprepared – Many people resist change because they feel unprepared. Provided training doesn’t really prepare people for the change, and as a result, there is a feeling of loss of mastery. Communications aren’t two-way, so there is no opportunity for feedback or to get answers to questions.
  • Unwilling – Even though people know that processes and systems aren’t working as well as they could, people have become comfortable in their interactions with those processes and systems. They “know” where the issues are, and how to make things work despite those issues. Changes to those processes and systems are perceived as a threat to the personal value of the people doing that work.

These are powerful reasons why change fails, but they are not insurmountable.

How can anything change…unless *you* change?

Is change working through your organization? Are you personally going through change? The answer to these questions is likely “yes”. Organizations are continually changing and evolving. As individuals, we are continually evolving as well. Think about it – what is different about your organization today when compared to two years ago? Compared to two months ago? What events or learnings over that time – both from a professional perspective and a personal perspective – have had an influence on you?

Change is constant – in our lives and in our careers. Here are some tips that I have found useful when experiencing change.

  • Educate yourself. Much of the angst around change is the fear of the unknown. To combat that fear, learn all that you can about what is changing. This will help restore any feelings of loss of mastery.
  • Ask questions. Fill in gaps in your understanding about what is changing. Listen for the “why” – the compelling reason change is necessary, and what success will look like after the change. This will help with any feelings of being unprepared.
  • Try it on. While it takes courage to push through the unknown, leaning into the change and exploring possibilities provides a sense of control. Being a pioneer within the change helps overcome feelings of loss of value. Trying on the change also provides you with valuable insights that you can use to make data-driven decisions about your next steps.

Change is a constant – in our organizations, in our jobs, and in our personal lives. Don’t let change paralyze you – take control. Educating yourself, asking questions, and trying on the change gives the you power and control you need to successfully push through the unknowns associated with change.

 

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Human-Centered Design, ITSM

Can Human-centered Design rescue your ITSM investment?

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Is your organization struggling to realize a return on investment with ITSM?

If you answered “yes”, you’re not alone. Many organizations are not getting the expected return on investment that was expected by adoption ITSM practices. Organizations are facing several challenges to realizing a ROI with ITSM.

  • “IT Operations only” approach. Many ITSM implementations have only focused on ITOM (IT Operations Management) aspects, such as managing user support requests, resolving incidents, or implementing changes. Services are not defined in terms of business outcomes or business value, making it difficult to determine the holistic benefit of ITSM practices.
  • Poorly defined workflows. This survey revealed that 43% of organizations cited excessive manual processing or insufficient automation as their top ITSM challenge. This points toward having poorly defined or undefined workflows that are obstacles for automation and AI-enabled capabilities.
  • Ineffective ITSM practices. According to this survey , 56% of businesses reported a significant impact on revenue due to technology downtime. Does this indicate ineffective incident management, problem management, change management, and continual improvement practices?
  • Total cost of ownership associated with ITSM tools. The cost of implementing ITSM doesn’t stop with the implementation of the tool. Ongoing maintenance costs, both in terms of licensing, support, and daily management of the platform contribute to the cost of ownership. Post-implementation costs, such as user training, organizational change management, and ongoing process improvements also add to the cost of ownership. Many IT organizations also struggle with what they see as conflicting demand between business priorities and operational activities.
  • Lack of specific ITSM success goals and metrics. Many organizations have not defined specific success measures for ITSM adoption. Further compounding the challenge is that organizations have not defined metrics that indicate how ITSM contributes to the organization achieving its mission, vision, and goals.

These are big challenges for many ITSM implementations determining an ROI. But in my opinion, there are two reasons why ITSM isn’t delivering the expected ROI.

  • ITSM has been and continues to be about IT, not about the business. Most ITSM implementations are focused on how to manage the work of IT, not on delivering business results.
  • ITSM practices were not designed with business outcomes and value in mind but instead based upon the requirements of the ITSM tool being implemented.

And even if one of the drivers for ITSM implementation was to manage interactions with end users – an operational aspect of IT management – the end user typically had no voice or input into the design of ITSM practices. And the lack of user involvement with ITSM design shows up in the experience with IT. As an example, the 2023 Global IT Experience Benchmark report from Happy Signals indicates that 49% of survey respondents identified “IT Support Services” as a negative factor regarding their experiences with IT.

Haven’t people always been a core focus of ITSM?

In theory, a core focus of ITSM is the people that interact with technology. “Customers” are the people that have defined the requirements and need for a service. It is the customer that determines the value of the service that IT provides. Customers are also users of those IT services. “Users” are people that rely upon and interact with IT services to get their work done. The use of the technology associated with these IT services is intended to improve productivity and efficiency of users in getting this work done.

But in practice, ITSM adoption has been more about how IT manages its work, and less about how the experience or success people have with technology. In fact, users are rarely – if ever – part of process design or technology implementations associated with ITSM.

Think about it. In practice, most incident management practices are built around routing and closing tickets as quickly as possible. Service desks and their agents are evaluated by how quickly an issue is closed (with “closed” usually being an IT judgement, and not confirmed with the end user), and not in terms of the user experience.

In practice, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) do not discuss business performance measures, but describe how IT measures its work. And many SLAs are defined by IT with no input from the end user or customer – yet the end user is expected to act within the terms of the SLA. In practice, “customer” satisfaction surveys are not engaging the customer, but rather the user. Compounding the situation is that the return rates of those satisfaction surveys are anemic, and actions are rarely (in practice) taken based on the information captured in the few surveys that are returned.

So how can organizations get the focus of ITSM back on people?

It’s about PPT plus HCD!

In the early 1960s, Harold Leavitt introduced what eventually became known as the “golden triangle” or “three-legged stool” of People, Process, and Technology (PPT) as guidance for managing change within an organization. The model represents if one component shifts, the other two must also shift to maintain an effective balance as change progresses.[i]  The PPT framework is simple but powerful. And while PPT is a mantra often heard as part of ITSM adoptions, the ‘people’ aspect is often ignored, as the focus is typically on the implementation of the technology associated with ITSM.

How can organizations take impactful, people-focused actions based on the PPT framework? This is where human-centered design (HCD) comes in. HCD is a framework for creative problem-solving that focuses on understanding the needs, wants, and limitations of the people who will most directly benefit from the solution.[ii]  It’s about designing with empathy for the people that will be interacting with the solution. HCD is composed of three elements:  desirability – the product or service meets users’ needs; feasibility – the product or service is technically feasible;  and viability – the product or service is viable as a business model.

There are real benefits when organizations shift to an HCD approach.

  • Technology teams build better, more robust products and services when they have a true understanding of individuals, their needs, and their journeys. [iii]
  • Leveraging human-centered design principles also helps technology teams deliver faster and at lower costs — mostly because they’re hitting closer to the mark on their first delivery. [iv]
  • Gartner’s 2021 Hybrid Work Employee Survey, which found that employers with a human-centric philosophy across the business saw reduced workforce fatigue by up to 44%, increased intent to stay by as much as 45%, and improved performance by up to 28%.[v]
  • A McKinsey study found that over 5 years, companies with strong design practices outperformed their industry counterparts in terms of revenue growth and returns to shareholders. [vi]

It’s a compelling argument for introducing HCD into ITSM practices – and bringing the focus of ITSM back to people.

Shifting the focus of ITSM to people

How can HCD be applied to ITSM? It all starts by asking “what do people really want?” from ITSM. Here are some tips for getting started.

  • Start where you are. Don’t throw away what has been done with ITSM, but human-centered design begins with a mindset shift. Commit to making ITSM more about the business and less about IT by shifting from a “technology-first” mindset to a “human-first” mindset.
  • Truly capture and understand the user perspective. Let’s face it – the way that the user perspective is typically captured today (via post interaction surveys sent from the service desk) isn’t that effective. What are better ways for IT organizations to understand the user experience? First, asking better questions (not rating questions) will yield better answers into the true user perspective. Going to where work is being done and observing user interactions with technology is powerful and informative. Hosting regular, periodic small focus group meetings with users provides opportunities for deeper discussions about the user perspective.
  • Include users in continual improvement actions. Including end users as part of continual improvement actions uncovers underlying needs, improves experience, and helps provides solutions that solve the real issue.

Shifting ITSM practices from a technology-first to a people-first approach will have a major positive impact on users, customers, organizations – and ITSM.

Need help with shifting your ITSM practices from a technology-first mindset to a people-first mindset? It starts with understanding the user’s experience. We can help – contact Tedder Consulting for more information.

[i] forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2024/04/19/20-expert-tips-for-effective-and-secure-enterprise-ai-adoption,  Retrieved April 2024.

[ii] https://www.mural.co/blog/human-centered-design Retrieved April 2024.

[iii] https://www.cio.com/article/413079/cios-find-big-benefits-in-shift-to-human-centered-design Retrieved April 2024

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-design/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design, Retrieved April 2024.

 

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ESM, ITSM

The Curious Case of the Missing IT Strategy

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IT organizations often get stuck in a vicious cycle of never-ending work. IT implements solution after solution, fixes one problem after another, and no matter how many times they do it, those solutions and fixes never seem to stick. IT often finds itself just trying to keep up with what appears to be a constantly changing business. IT is often seen as the anchor slowing business down and has earned a reputation of being the slowest path toward technology implementation.  And when budget times come around, IT never seems to manage to get its fair share. 

These are signs that an IT organization is missing strategy.  This is a massive problem for both IT and the organizations that IT works within. Why are so many IT organizations missing a strategy?  What can be done to establish a viable IT strategy?

One thing that is certain – the strategy can’t just be “do”.

The Missing IT Strategy

Of course, no leader intentionally avoids developing strategy. It’s usually a consequence of a number of factors. However, in the case of the missing IT strategy, the CIO has to establish a business-technology (not technology alone) strategy, talk and share that strategy with other leaders, incorporate and underpin the larger business strategy, and drive the IT organization forward following that strategy. If a CIO spends too much of their time doing or supervising the day-to-day work within an IT organization instead of delegating, she won’t have the time (or energy) to be strategic. If a CIO has to spend more time supervising the daily activities of IT than ensuring business outcomes and value, that’s usually an indicator of a missing IT strategy. 

The second indicator of a missing IT strategy is the lack of true service management. Why? Because if the service management foundation is not strong or well executed, IT can never be strategic. If IT ignores:

  • Defining services in terms of business value and outcomes
  • Creating workflows that are based on services, not technologies or organization charts
  • Publishing performance reports that are relevant to and meaningful for the business 

then IT is setting itself up for failure.  Many organizations look at service management as just something that a service desk does.  But good service management provides the capability of relating technology investments to business outcomes.  This makes good service management a critical part of the foundation of IT. Having a solid foundation is what keeps IT relevant, reliable, and able to scale to meet business needs. WIthout good service management, IT will waste a lot of time just trying to keep up with service requests and putting out fires instead of enabling the realization of business strategy.  

Finally, the third indicator of a missing IT strategy is a “one thing at a time” mentality. To stay on track, IT organizations often choose to focus on just one initiative at a time. This might help your team feel less overwhelmed, but it often comes with the cost of missing a holistic view of the organization. The ability to see the birds eye view of how the organization relies on technology to create better outcomes for end users and customers is one of the most important skills for an IT leader.  Having this big picture view enables the IT leader to be even more strategic.  

Why does IT need a strategy?

IT operating as only a support team is no longer an option for any business. The speed of business has increased significantly over the last decade, due in a large part to the introduction of new technologies, such as automation, mobile computing, cloud-based services and machine learning. IT has to be the driver and enabler of technology. Whether it’s realized or not, technology has become “baked into” every aspect of the organization. 

The question is “has IT become ‘baked in’ as well?”  Without a well-defined IT strategy, the answer to this question is usually “no”.   

Defining, socializing, and executing a strategy strengthens IT’s role within an organization. It’s what separates the IT organizations that are treated as order takers from the IT organizations that are treated as valued partners. 

How to solve the case of the missing IT strategy

Here are three things that IT leaders can do to solve the case of the missing IT strategy.

What is the business strategy?  How can technology enable realization of business strategy? To shift from a “support only” team to a strategic asset, IT first has to understand the goals and objectives of the overall organization – and how technology can be used to enable realization of those goals and objectives. IT’s strategy must be tied to these business goals and objectives. IT leaders have to take a step back from the inner workings, day-to-day activities of IT and look at the bigger picture of the organization. 

Elevate to real service management, not just some arbitrarily selected processes.  Once IT understands the role of technology in achieving business strategy, IT must then elevate its approach to service management.  Service management is more than just fulfilling requests and resolving outages. An effective approach for elevating service management is to identify and map the value streams of an organization, then identifying how technology underpins those value streams.  Value streams help identify the products and services that IT must deliver. This exercise not only lays out what service management must enable and deliver for the organization, it is also a great way to align what IT is doing to the overall needs of the business. 

Report IT performance in business terms. Once you’ve elevated your service management and understand the goals and objectives of the company, then you’ll be able to produce and publish performance reports that reflect how IT contributions enabled achievement of business goals and objectives.  Having this capability is significant for a number of reasons.  First, it demonstrates that IT truly understands what is important to the organization.  Secondly, it provides the ability to evaluate if IT strategy is meeting business needs.  And lastly, it begins to change the perception of IT as just being a “support team” to a strategic asset.

Thinking and working strategically is transformative for an IT organization. After you’ve seen how IT integrates with the rest of the organization, you won’t be able to go back to working only in a ‘support’ role.  By defining and executing an IT strategy , your entire business will become stronger.  

Need help developing an IT strategy that is aligned with your business objectives?  Let Tedder Consulting help!  Tedder Consulting will first visit your organization to understand your business, goals, and current IT situation.  Tedder Consulting will then conduct an analysis of your IT services and practices to determine how they are operating. Finally, we deliver a plan for aligning your technology strategy to your business goals.  For more information, contact Tedder Consulting today.

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ITSM, Leadership

Are You Due for an IT Health Check?

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If I asked IT leaders what it was like the week the world went remote in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I would guess 90% of them would have visceral reactions to the memory of that time. Many organizations were caught without any kind of technology contingency plan – and they felt the pain of that.

That hectic period should have taught every IT organization a valuable lesson – you can never predict when an IT emergency is going to hit.

Unfortunately, not every IT (or business) leader got the memo. They made it through COVID-19 disaster and went right back to the day-to-day grind, promising (hoping?) to get updated or new recovery plans in place when things slow down.

The problem is that the next disaster could be just around the corner. My apologies if this sounds fatalistic, but that is exactly what happened nearly 18 months ago. Organizations around the world were faced with a scenario that, while no one could have anticipated, very few had any kind of contingency. What will the next disaster look like? Could it be the moment that budgets are being reviewed and IT is suddenly on the chopping block? Or your supply chain breaks down and IT has to scramble to ensure customers receive their services?

IT disasters can be like heart attacks. There’s never a good time for one. But they can often be avoided – even prevented – by developing good healthy habits along with conducting regular health checks.

Three Healthy Habits of an IT Organization

How can you protect yourself and your IT organization from these IT “heart attacks”? Much like with your personal health, it all starts with developing healthy habits and regularly conducting IT health checks. Here are three of the top healthy habits you should develop in IT.

1. Regularly Discussing and Agreeing Business Value
IT has to understand the business value of their work. One of the healthiest things any CIO can do is to regularly connect with business peers to review value. Value is one of the hardest things to define within an organization, and may shift over time. The only way to confirm IT value is to review and discuss that value with other senior managers and leaders within the organization.

2. Regularly Review IT Service Definitions
Another healthy habit is clearly defining IT services in terms of business outcomes. Defining services demystifies what IT does and connects what IT does to business outcomes and value. Additionally, well defined IT services enable the organization to take advantage of its technology capabilities for competitive advantage. Regularly reviewing IT service definitions with other senior business managers not only positions the organization for taking advantage of current IT capability, but also to help identify and plan for future technology needs.

3. Regularly Map And Review Value Streams
Finally, having up-to-date value stream maps is a great health check for an IT organization. A value stream map illustrates how materials and information flow through an organization, and helps the entire organization clearly see how value flows in the organization. Value stream maps also provide a way for IT to identify where and how technology contributes to the value stream. Mapping and reviewing these value stream maps further enhances business relationships and also ensures alignment between IT and the business it serves.

Signs your IT organization needs a health check

  • Not sure if your organization needs a health check? Here are few signs that it’s time:
  • Your peers question the value and usefulness of IT products and services.
  • Your IT organization just can’t seem to get ‘caught up’.
  • You’re challenged to provide a clear ‘line of sight’ between investments in technology and business results.
  • IT is usually handed solutions, not opportunities, for solving business challenges.
  • Working in IT is chaotic and unrewarding. IT seems to spend more time “fire-fighting” and less time “innovating”.
  • No one asks questions about IT performance reporting.

IT Health Checks Don’t Have to Be Overwhelming

Much like eating a low-cholesterol diet and exercising more frequently, these IT health checks may initially feel like a pain that restricts your fun (or innovation, in an IT world). But the truth of the matter is if IT does these things on a regular and consistent basis, it stops feeling like a chore. You’ll have a shared understanding of business outcomes and the role that technology has in achieving those outcomes. You’ll have transparency between investments in technology and business value. And both the IT organization and the business overall end up with better outcomes, better investments, better relationships, and better businesses.

That’s why I strongly recommend scheduling regular periodic health checks for your IT organization. These healthy habits can’t be developed in a vacuum. They can – and should – be built into all your other initiatives.

At the end of the day, these “health checks” are service management activities. Service management shouldn’t be viewed as something that is done in addition to your work. Service management is how good IT organizations get work done in a manageable, reliable, and predictable way.

Need an IT Health Check?

Need help with your IT Health Check? We can help. With over 20 years of service management experience, Tedder Consulting can provide your organization with the objective assessment of the health of your IT-business relationship, and an actionable plan for instilling those healthy habits that will have a positive impact on your organization! Contact Tedder Consulting today!

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Leadership

What Ever Happened to Critical Thinking?

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As businesses grow, so do the size and complexity of their problems and challenges. To solve those complex challenges and problems, leaders need to employ more critical thinking from themselves and their teams.

However, the world seems to be lacking critical thinking at a time when businesses need it most. And the lack of critical thinking isn’t just anecdotal tales told by frustrated leaders. There’s research to back it up. So, whatever happened to critical thinking and can we get it back?

Critical Thinking, Defined

First, let’s address the big question: what exactly is critical thinking? In the broadest terms, critical thinking is the ability to think reasonably, removing your own emotional attachment and personal bias.

Critical thinking requires individuals to rely on data and take the steps to analyze and evaluate data to make a decision. According to the Foundation for Critical Thinking, “critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.”

It’s important to note that critical thinking helps you to avoid doing things simply because they’ve always been done a certain way or because a certain way seems easier or faster.

What has happened to critical thinking?

Has there really been a decline in critical thinking? There is research that shows this is a reality for many higher education institutions and businesses.

A Wall Street Journal analysis of standardized test scores given to freshmen and seniors found that the average graduate from prestigious institutions show little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years.

That trend extends into the business world. In May 2016, a survey by PayScale and Future Workplace found that 60% of employers believe new college graduates lack critical thinking skills, based on a survey of over 76,000 managers and executives. Additionally, about half of employers rate their employees’ critical thinking skills as average or worse.

There is no one main reason for this decline in critical thinking. Most experts attribute it to a combination of things.

To start off with, there is not a clear definition of critical thinking and therefore, many professors, instructors and employers lack a way to objectively assess critical thinking skills. And many teachers struggle to teach critical thinking so many simply don’t do it. The Education Post found that only 1 out of 10 educators teach critical thinking and that teacher usually teaches at a selective school or to a select group of students.

And some experts say technology is one of the reasons for this decline. According to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children’s Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, as technology plays a bigger role, our skills in critical thinking have declined and our visual skills have improved.

Anecdotally, I think it’s important to point out that a decline in critical thinking in business might not be the actual decline in critical thinking. Rather, the decline in critical thinking is due to a lack of opportunities (or ignoring opportunities) to encourage critical thinking.

Many businesses are only looking for the fastest (and sometimes cheapest) way to a solution. Such an approach is an anti-pattern for critical thinking. When you’re always looking for shortcuts, you’re cutting out the time to critically think. When you’re too quick to say something isn’t working and that you need to change directions completely, you’re sabotaging critical thinking.

All of this probably sounds like bad news for those looking to increase critical thinking in their organizations. The good news is that critical thinking can be taught and if it’s encouraged enough in an organization, it will be taught!

How to Improve Critical Thinking

Contrary to many opinions, critical thinking is not a soft skill. It can be learned and it must be practiced to be developed. Here are a few steps that will help you tap into critical thinking.

  1.  Gather more and better data
    Critical thinking is the ability to remove your own bias from problem-solving and the best way to do that is to look at the data. Many organizations are trying to make decisions with poor data. As an organization, you need to prioritize having as much high-quality data as possible. And as the IT organization, you must collect this data and ensure that the organization is using it to its fullest ability.

2. Question assumptions
This is the most important piece to critical thinking — and it’s often the most difficult part. Don’t just look at the “what” of the problem. Ask about why it’s happening. Be wary of the assumptions you may bring to the table and when you come to a conclusion, ask yourself if you’re basing the conclusion on the matter at hand or on previous experiences. Additionally, it’s important to separate data and facts from assumptions and inferences. Often, leaders will make an assumption and then treat it as fact. Dig into the why and use data to protect yourself from inferences.

3. Look for opportunities and potential
Critical thinking isn’t about shutting down opportunities or ideas. It’s about seeing possibility and potential based on data and without assumption. For example, failed initiatives and major service interruptions are opportunities to revamp processes or rethink strategies to create something better.

4. Look for new perspectives
To be a critical thinker, you have to get out of the echo chamber. Engage in active listening when discussing problems and solutions. Engage with and actively listen to colleagues with opposing views in your own organization. While most people dread having to speak to someone who simply does not understand their role, it can be an excellent exercise to obtain new perspectives that can give more context to problems, examine your own biases and spark more ideas. Additionally, as a leader, you may benefit from learning from other industries or experts from other organizations. Be open to new perspectives or ideas from unlikely avenues.

5. Manage ambiguity
Finally to improve your critical thinking skills, get comfortable with ambiguity. We are all operating in rapidly changing environments. The data we have will change. Your own perspectives will shift, as well the perspective of others. You have to be comfortable identifying that you are making the right decision today, but the way those decisions get made can change in the future. Getting comfortable with this type of ambiguity and being able to practice critical thinking despite this rapid pace of change will help you to make better decisions for your organization in the long run.

Critical thinking doesn’t have to be a lost art. It can and should be encouraged at all levels of the organization – but it must start from the top. If you’re wondering whatever happened to critical thinking in your organization, perhaps it’s time to take a step back to examine your own critical thinking approach.

Is your organization suffering from a lack of critical thinking? Has your organization found ways to nurture and encourage critical thinking? Please share your thoughts!

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Leadership

The CIO Role, Reasserted

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After an unprecedented year of change, many organizations are adjusting to a new status quo with technology – and technology experts – leading the way. 

And changing right along with the rest of the organization is the CIO role. With more reliance on technology, remote and hybrid working environments, and more technology-focused roles in an organization, the CIO has also had to adjust to the new status quo.

What can a CIO do to cement their status and reassert themselves into the conversation?

It’s time for the CIO role to reassert itself.

The CIO Role, Reasserted

As technology has become more critical for the daily needs of a business, the role of the CIO has become more fractionalized. New technology leadership roles, such as the CTO, CDO, and CISO, have emerged within many organizations. While these emerging roles may have been responsibilities that the CIO formerly performed – at least at times – the CIO is no longer the only technology leader within the organization. 

But that doesn’t mean the CIO doesn’t play a vital role among these technology-focused roles. In fact, I’d argue that with all the different technology initiatives, it’s even more important for the CIO to reassert their role in the organization. With so many specialized roles, organizations are in danger of more technology silos. So instead of being a gatekeeper or the arbiter of technology, the CIO has to become the connector, especially in this age of technology democratization. 

Progressive CIOs have a deep business acumen and understand how technology contributes to the success of the business. A good CIO brings a broad, holistic view of the business and how technology can impact the bottom line – and the top line.  The CIO can use these specific skills and knowledge not only to support the CTO, CDO, and CISO – but any business leader as well. 

Using this holistic understanding of the business, the CIO has to become the common thread and ensure balance between the different technology roles and business leaders. Instead of Chief Information Officer, the CIO could be more like the “Central Information Officer” and be the driver of all business initiatives involving technology. 

But make no mistake – this isn’t about a power grab. It’s about the idea that the CIOs knowledge of business strategies and technology will strengthen and enhance everyone’s initiatives. For example, business leaders could use the CIO’s knowledge and understanding of how to drive a positive customer experience that IT has gained through the service desk in order to improve their offerings. 

This shift into the Central Information Officer requires all of the hallmarks of breaking down silos: open communication, shared workflows, and driving and emphasizing the achievement of organizational goals over isolated departmental goals.

And to do this, there is one concrete step a CIO can take to begin facilitating connections and reasserting the importance of their role.

The Start of the Reimagined CIO

CIOs can’t afford to wait to start reinventing their role. The longer a CIO waits to start connecting other technology roles, the more siloed and fractionalized the organization could become. 

So where does the CIO start?  

If all companies are now technology companies, and we want to connect how the different parts of the organization leverage technology, then true service management is the way forward. 

But I’m not referring to ITSM of the past, where an organization would invest in a tool and blindly implement out-of-the-box workflows and constructs that weren’t designed with your company in mind. I’m referring to Enterprise Service Management (ESM), an organizational capability for delivering business value and outcomes by leveraging the resources of the organization (including technology) to produce and deliver products and services in a holistic way.

As I mentioned earlier, the progressive CIO has a holistic view of how technology and business functions work together to co-create more value for the company. In order to have that view, you have to understand the people and processes at work. People and processes are what drive businesses forward and combining people, processes, and technology in a clear, consistent and organized manner is the most impactful thing a CIO can do.  That’s why effective ESM is so vital today. 

Implementing a strong ESM approach is a multi-step process. First, if your IT foundation is not solid, you’ll need to clean that up before you will be able to engage other business leaders in ESM. But once you’ve audited and tightened your own workflows and your IT team is working like a well-oiled machine, then you can start to implement ESM in other parts of your business.

And the best place to start ESM is with those frequently executed value streams. This is where a CIO can test their connector powers and leverage other business leaders’ expertise to adopt ESM within their departments. Doing so results in improved transparency and underpins the importance of having effective, cross-functional processes across all parts of the organization.

ESM opens the door to better customer experience, better employee experience, better business outcomes, and better value – for both the organization and its customers. Good ESM also eliminates silos, which can be among the biggest problems organizations face as they try to scale, and truly elevates the organization as a whole.

For many organizations, the CIO saved the day last year when the pandemic hit. But as businesses move forward, the CIO can’t bank on past successes to maintain their leverage in an organization. Reasserting the CIO role requires open collaboration, effective communication, and bringing other parts of the organization together. Strong ESM is the path forward for CIOs to reassert their role within the organization.

 How can ESM help your organization? How can you leverage ESM as an organizational strategy to connect your organization in such a way that drives and enables success?  Contact me today for a free, no-obligation 30-minute chat to discuss! 

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Leadership

A New CIO’s Guide to Mapping Experiences

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Delivering and enabling business value is a large part of IT’s job.  As such, the CIO must track how value flows, not only within IT, but across the organization. 

It may sound easier than it actually is. Because value is tricky. For one thing, it’s not always well-defined. And it often gets lost in day-to-day operations as the business evolves.  This often leaves end users wondering what happened to the value that they were expecting. 

One of the first tasks of new CIOs is to determine what’s driving value, what’s not, and how improved value can be delivered to all stakeholders. But how can you do that? Where do you start? 

In order to answer that question, we need to stop talking only about value. Instead, we need to include talking about the experiences of the customer, the user, and the employee. 

Customer experience

As defined by Hubspot, customer experience is “the impression your customers have of your brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer’s journey.” The customer experience factors into a customer’s view of your brand and it can impact the bottom line. A strong customer experience can increase customer retention, which will reduce marketing and advertising costs. And loyal customers often spend more than new ones as one study found that if a business increases customer retention by 5%, profits can increase by up to 95%. Additionally, according to a survey by Info Quest CRM, a totally satisfied customer contributes 2.6 times more revenue than a somewhat satisfied customer.

User experience

The user experience is very similar to customer experience but it is directly related to the product, application or service. User experience refers to the journey a user takes when they interface with a system whether that is an application, a digital service, a website or a product. In today’s digital world, user experience matters. 88% of consumers are unlikely to return to a site after a bad experience and a recent study found that a well-designed user interface could increase conversion rates by 200%. 

 Employee experience

According to Gallup, the employee experience is the journey an employee takes with your organization and is made up of all the interactions that employees have during their tenure at the organization. The employee experience matters because research shows that companies with actively engaged employees outperform competitors by 147% in earnings per share and happy employees are up to 20% more productive at work. Improving the employee experience can earn your company money. 

The experience matters

Each of these experiences contributes to the overall value that stakeholders derive from an organization and all of these experiences directly impact the bottom line. If an experience is bad, there is no realized value from that experience. Therefore each of these experiences is very important to CIOs because better experiences means better value. 

Luckily, there is a tried and true approach for enabling more value through creating better experiences.  It starts with mapping the current experiences.

Whether you are mapping customer journeys or employee journeys, every mapping exercise will include the same steps. My recommendation is to choose one experience to map and improve before addressing the others. You’ll be able to use the lessons learned from mapping that one experience as guidance when mapping each of the other two.  Also, you can iterate faster when only focused on one experience at a time.

1. Include all stakeholders

This is the first and most important step you can take when mapping experiences — get all stakeholders involved. These stakeholders will want to work with you if they understand how improving experiences will benefit them, so communicate those potential wins. For example, if you chose to map the employee experience, you can explain to HR that mapping and improving this experience can improve the onboarding experience, decrease employee turnover, and increase employee engagement — thus helping HR to hit their departmental objectives.

2. Map the value streams

How is value flowing through these experiences? For example, how does a user realize value from first touch with your website through purchase? What are the steps and who is responsible for each? Mapping the value streams that enable experiences will identify where responsibilities lie, what parts of the organization are involved,  and where there may be gaps or bottlenecks.  

3. Audit workflows 

Once you have the team on the same page, review and audit the processes that underpin the value streams that underpin an experience. What’s going on under the hood of that experience? Approach these audits with an open minded curiosity, and don’t be afraid to ask why a workflow is designed the way it is.  Let your team know that this is a discovery and learning exercise, not a blame exercise, and that you are simply building a clear picture of how work is being completed. Workflows, no matter how well they were designed, have a tendency to ‘drift’ over time. 

4. Embed continual improvement  

Where is the experience falling short or encountering friction?  

This is the most critical question a CIO must be able to answer when it comes to experience.  And it’s a question that the answer is continually changing, due to continual changes in marketplaces, stakeholders, technology, and more. This is why embedding continual improvement within the experience is so important. 

New CIOs have a big opportunity to establish a mindset of continual improvement right from the start. Regularly survey end-users regarding improvement suggestions and feedback.  Develop and maintain a continual improvement log for capturing, prioritizing, and publicizing improvement suggestions. Establish a regular cadence for designing and implementing improvements. Market the successes and lessons learned from continual improvement. Why?  Because continually improving the experience continually improves value realization.

Applying the above four steps will provide great insight into each of the three experiences that are driving value within your organization. Even though the focus of each experience is different, the process of mapping these experiences is the same because they all revolve around people, processes, and technology, and how well each of these factors are working with the others. 

What has been your experience with mapping experiences?  I’d enjoy hearing about your discoveries and successes with experience mapping. 

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