In today’s complex technology and business environment, it is very much necessary for organizations to provide services that cater to the demands of changing business needs. To provide better IT services, enterprises need a robust ITSM framework in ITIL which constitutes a crucial collection of IT Service Management processes that will help IT services to align with organizational business strategies. But, whenever you introduce an ITSM initiative, it always undergoes some stern resistance towards it, mostly on project-oriented issues.
ITIL has found widespread acceptance in enterprises because it delivers “value to the customers with regards to outcomes they want to achieve without taking the ownership of costs and risks associated with it.” According to a ‘Forrester Report’, it says that 52% of ITIL improvement initiatives fail due to resistance which causes wasted costs and increased risks. And these failures are no longer acceptable in today’s competitive business environment. So, let us take a look top 10 ways of resistance to ITIL implementation/improvement initiatives in an organization.
1. Implementing ITIL is the Goal, Not what it Should Achieve:
In the exuberance of implementing the ITIL framework, people fail to communicate the ‘Why’s’ of ITIL implementation and in turn explain ‘What’ will happen. In fact, ITIL itself is the goal and not what we want to achieve by using it.
2. People Not Keeping Their Promises:
When it comes to working, people often promise to deliver things and then fail to do so, and state there was something more important. Either they are absent-minded or take things for granted, but when there is a live project that is going on where people say they will follow certain procedures but then they don’t. These small mistakes add up and will hold back ITIL implementations.
3. No Senior Management Commitment:
How many times have we seen that when we try to implement something new, we instantaneously see resistance from the senior management, they believe why to fix something which is not broken. But, today you cannot wait for something to break to fix it, you can ensure nothing gets broken in the first place and ensure IT processes are robust enough to handle new demands that are ever so complex and deliver results that are in line with organizational business strategy.
Industry experts from all over the world believe that the lack of commitment from senior management is one of the top ways of resistance toward ITIL improvement initiatives.
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- Others are adopting ITIL, so should we?
- That is the way it’s written in the book and we need to stick to it
- We are going to implement ITIL, but not now Industry experts believe, that ITIL initiatives at times are very large and too complex which does not even fit the purpose. Moreover, people try to implement too much too fast which sets unrealistic goals.
4. Failure Follows New Procedures and Continue what they Normally Do:
Change is inevitable, but the thing is people detest change because they are accustomed to staying in their comfort zone and anything that is new they try to avoid to some degree or completely. And when they see there is no reason or immediate value they will engage in various types of resistance. Also when there is very little commitment from the senior management towards ITIL improvement initiatives this type of resistance will increase to such an extent that getting back from it will be really difficult. They will consider ITIL as a barrier and you will see this type of resistance at all levels including business and end users as well.
5. They Plan, Implement, and Stop:
This is a common phenomenon that we see across the globe irrespective of the framework. People plan about ITIL, they implement the framework and then they stop at some juncture. There is no scope if you do not embed the results into a continual improvement cycle to ensure the framework addresses change or new IT solutions are deployed in a manner that ITSM remains aligned and processes continue to deliver value against escalating costs and risks.
6. We Don’t Think ITIL Will Work Here:
This is one such resistance where people will have their own pre-conceived impressions that ITIL will not work at any cost. Because people are not convinced of the need for ITIL and there is denial that change is necessary. When people come face-to-face with the reality of ITIL implementation, the resistance will be in the form of a lack of time or resources. Also, the pressure of the current workload and lack of staff also causes increased frustration and resistance.
7. Launching ITIL Everywhere and Expecting People to Follow:
Even after two decades of ITIL’s existence with millions of certifications, itSMF conferences, and 100’s case studies, we still do not know how to adopt ITIL in an organization. The major problem is we expect people to just follow no matter what and fail to engage them to create/design their own processes. We have covered the process of how to implement ITIL in our article “ITIL Implementation Roadmap: 6 Tips to Adopt ITIL Effectively” to show you how to successfully adopt ITIL. The major concern here is that nobody takes responsibility or adopts resistance in the form of ‘Not my Responsibility’.
8. They do Not Understand the Value Required by the Business:
When an enterprise decides to introduce ITIL improvement initiatives, people still do not understand what the actual value that needs to be achieved is. Industry experts in itSMF conferences highlight the fact that close to 70% of ITIL initiatives are unable to demonstrate value. The IT department in an organization is still not seen as a value-creating partner. The problem is nobody knows what are they trying to achieve with ITIL.
9. IT Department Hesitates to Make the Business Case:
A major resistance towards ITIL improvement initiatives in the organization is that the IT has very little understanding of the business impact and its priority. This happens because the IT department still focuses internally and does not expand its scope beyond that. According to ITIL best practice guidance, often there is a business case or metrics; because IT is internally focused they fail to address customer or service focus.
The general resistance towards change is in the form of denial of the need for ITIL improvement initiatives. When the workforce is confronted with that ITIL is going to happen, the resistance will revolve around a lack of time or resources.
10. Everything is of Top Priority:
ITIL has existed for more than two decades now and many enterprises across the globe are yet to understand ITIL’s impact and priority or the value that it provides to their business. People think everything is on top priority, but they fail to understand what needs to be done first to ensure all your processes are robust enough to handle complex demands in this competitive business landscape.
There is no point in resisting ITIL which is one of the best ITSM frameworks out there. Not only ITIL can be implemented as a standalone methodology, but it can also be combined with other robust methodologies such as DevOps, Prince2 Foundation and Practitioner Certification Training, Lean Six Sigma Certification Online, and more to help enterprises deliver more value and address business critical issues such as quality and complexity of services offered.
Looks familiar 🙂