I would like to wish you a Happy New Year as I start my first blog for ITP. Today is ‘blue’ Monday – the day in January regarded as the most depressing day of the year – the low point between the New Year festivities and spring. This year we also have the economic turmoil.
We woke up today to the news that the Optimists' Society want to reclaim the "most depressing day of the year" as International Optimism Day. It wants to banish "Blue Monday" with comedy and cheer packages for those that need a boost to feel good. Here is a wonderful quote to start the week:
"The key to feeling positive lies in taking action and making other people smile. Remember, life could always be worse, but with positive action things will always get better." Optimists Society founder James Battison.
With the credit crunch, I thought that there may be a quieter start to the New Year but no, we have been busier than usual, an optimistic start. Our clients are seeking ways to take positive action in the face of economic challenges. The demand for ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000 workshops and training is from:
- Our traditional market: service managers, operations personnel and auditors are learning about ITIL for the first time or upgrading their ITIL knowledge and qualifications to ITIL V3 and ISO/IEC 20000;
- Executives and senior management teams that are re-assessing the way their organisation works and their priorities for services. ITIL and IS/IEC 20000 both provide tools to help inform their decisions;
- Programme, project management and business solution people looking for new ideas to help them to re-justify projects and to deliver essential projects cost effectively.
During the last two weeks I have had the pleasure of introducing over 100 people to ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000, in training sessions and workshops. These sessions are really about “how can we make things better” and are very positive. Each person takes at least one action away that will make life better for them and their colleagues. People that pass the ITIL Foundation exam also have a well recognised qualification.
I also love those light-bulb moments when a person has a moment of clarity that illuminates their mind. The light of recognition shines on the past or current situation, previously hidden, unknown or not realised. It changes the persons approach to service management forever.
What causes these light-bulb moments?
Light bulb moment 1: ITIL’s ready made business and service models enable organisations to re-organise whilst helping them to understand the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of changing. For example, many are moving to a shared service model. As organisations re-structure their business, IT departments want to change their operating models quickly. ITIL provides off-the-shelf operating models and service lifecycle models that organisations can understand and adopt to streamline their IT services across the supply chain.
Light bulb moment 2: Many senior managers have a dilemma. What can they consolidate, share or cut without impacting key operational services. The ITIL service portfolio provides a business and technical view of the service pipeline (projects) as well as the service catalogue (what is running in service operation). People quickly see that understanding the entire portfolio of services, matching these to business outcomes, modelling the demand for resources across the service lifecycle will provide greater insight to make better investment decisions.
Light bulb moment 3: ISO/IEC 20000 specifies the basic good practices to protect in times of cut-back. These core processes are essential to enable service providers to manage IT services that meet the business needs. After all, if an IT service provider does not deliver IT services that the business needs, someone else will step in.
Light bulb moment 4: Establishing a culture of continual improvement, (ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL) helps people to feel better and they are more motivated in their work.
The great thing about ‘blue’ Monday is that it will not get worse, so take the optimists approach - take positive action things to make things better and make others smile.
Any feedback and comments are always welcome!
.gif)
