According to Gartner’s ‘ITIL and Process Improvement Key Initiative’ report, organizations believe implementing Information Technology Information Library (ITIL) has improved customer satisfaction with IT services and has resulted in better communication and information flow between IT staff and customers. ITIL has also reduced costs in developing procedures and practices within an enterprise, enabling it to be more competitive.
Implementing ITIL depends significantly on the pain points that exist in your organization, how you plan to fix them using the ITIL framework, and how far the people in your organization are able to adapt to the change. The sudden change with a new set of principles may bring about considerable modifications in the day-to-day work ethics. This might be overwhelming for a few and they may find it an easy task to handle the situation. However, you have to strategically bring about the changes by instilling ITIL into the culture of your organization.
The Traditional Approach to ITIL Implementation
One of the common approaches to implement ITIL in an organization is to go by the principles exactly as written in the book. You can hire a consultant, preferably an ITIL certified professional, who can translate the principles for the real-life scenario. However, would this be a practical approach? You can implement ITIL in a traditional way, but can you ensure that everyone embraces the culture which ITIL prescribes? There are few things which the traditional approach overlooks, and which you need to focus on to create an ITIL friendly atmosphere:
- The core publications are meant for guidance and not to be followed word by word. The principles and processes should be adopted after an analysis of the strengths and pain points in your organization, where change is really required.
- ITIL cannot be applied only with processes and technology. People involved play a key role in adoption of ITIL in an organization. Change in technology facilitates cost effectiveness and enhances responsiveness. Change in the process improves efficiency. However, to make all this happen, you need to bring about the change in perception towards ITIL. Close attention needs to be paid towards the workforce so that improved work culture and efficient infrastructure can be brought about.
How to Create ITIL Friendly Culture in your Organization
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Assess the Culture:
ITIL prescribes that you do a thorough assessment of your project / organization, prior to applying the principles of the framework. In addition to analyzing the core processes and techniques from an ITIL perspective, it is best advised to do gain an in-depth understanding of the existing culture in the organization. This will help in determining the possible hurdles that may crop up while inculcating ITIL best practices into the organizational culture.
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Gain Support of Senior Stakeholders:
First, convince the senior stakeholders regarding the adoption of ITIL principles in your organization and gain their support. This will possibly help you to face fewer hurdles from your colleagues while bringing about the cultural change. While presenting the case for ITIL to your seniors, make sure you talk about the benefits for the organization as a whole, rather than presenting it just as another project which will involve cost outlay with no return of investment guarantee.
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Make a Case for Customer-centric Organization:
Convince your colleagues regarding the benefits of ITIL implementation, an approach that will help one to attain the agreed-upon goal of making the organization customer-centric. If you make a case for ITIL as an ideology, you may be alienated. However, if you present ITIL as a path which will help everybody to achieve a common agreed-upon goal, it will increase the chance of acceptance in the organization.
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Minimal Power Distance:
In order to develop and maintain an ITIL friendly culture in your organization, one should ensure that the power distance is minimal. According to Hofstede’s model, the power distance is the distance between the ‘ruler’ and the ‘ruled’, the ‘powerful’ and the ‘powerless’.
In the context of an organization, the distance between you (‘the manager’) and your team (‘those who are reporting to you’) should be less. Your team should be able to question you when they do not understand or believe in an ITIL concept you are trying to implement. Only in an environment which fosters discussion will you have an opportunity to explain how the best practices will bring in benefits.
If your team is not in a situation to question you, due to the fear of authority, they will accept the change unwillingly without understanding the benefits. This is definitely not the best way to go about creating an ITIL friendly culture in an organization. -
Train the Staff:
One of the best ways to gain support from the staff is to educate them about ITIL principles. Encourage your team to attend ITIL training and get certified, as it will add value to their career. As a result, they will gain knowledge about the ITIL best practice methodologies and start to believe in their impact. This will help in gaining the much needed support from the staff for ITIL implementation.
Implementing ITIL is not a project, but it is a journey. Hence, you cannot celebrate a win immediately after implementing the framework. For example, you can implement incident management processes to improve productivity in a particular phase of the project. You may be able to handle incidents better; however, you will not have numerical facts and figures to prove how the process benefitted from ITIL, until the end of the project. This is another reason why staff needs to be educated about ITIL principles so that they can identify the benefits by themselves. -
Celebrate Small Successes:
To motivate team members to move ahead in ITIL implementation, it is important that you start celebrating small achievements. For instance, the establishment of a service desk as per the advice of ITIL which solves all customer queries without the need for escalation is a small achievement, yet a very important one. Make sure you celebrate this achievement as the first positive result of the implementation. This will elevate the confidence among the team and they will start believing in ITIL as the best approach for IT Service Management (ITSM) initiatives.
Always remember, ITIL is as much about ‘people’ as it is about ‘technology’. Once you change the way people think, act and react towards ITIL, creating an ITIL friendly culture in an organization becomes very easy.
