Translator’s Note: The following post was originally written for a German audience and describes an in-person workshop. While the travel anecdotes give it a certain local flavor, the core dynamics of team alignment, resistance to change, and the adoption of IT Service Management (ITSM) are universal. It is also important to note that workshops like this, with comparable results, can easily be conducted online with teams worldwide.
I Wish We Could Actually Implement Some of This…
… was a remarkable sentence from a participant during the feedback round of a recent in-house training on IT Service Management (ITSM). Since this training session was special in many ways, I wanted to share the experience.
The Setup
„Mr. Söllner, we need a three-day ITIL® coaching session,“ the client requested. Interestingly, this request did not come from an IT Director, but from an IT team member—but more on that later. During a scoping call, he explained that the IT department wanted to improve their processes and planned to use ITIL®. The goal of the three-day in-house workshop was to bring all departments together to understand and leverage the benefits of IT Service Management.
I suggested planning „only“ two days, focusing on highly relevant content and practical application. By concentrating on the essentials of ITSM, you can convey the necessary knowledge for a project launch in two days while leaving plenty of time for specific questions. After some internal discussion, I convinced him: We agreed on a two-day workshop based on FitSM, a lightweight ITSM framework.
The Journey
„A quick side note on the journey, which ensured I will remember these two days for a long time. The night before, the train was widely rerouted due to people on the tracks, making me arrive almost an hour late. As a result, I had to take a taxi to the hotel, which I unfortunately couldn’t expense to the railway company (the delay was almost an hour, not quite). The hotel had kindly hidden my key in a secret spot since the reception was closed. Upon arriving in my room, the next shock: breakfast started at 7:00 AM, but my commuter train was scheduled for 7:02 AM. Finally, the next morning required a light sprint, as the bus stop at the end of the train line had been relocated—a mild surprise for someone unfamiliar with the area.
My arrival at the client site was promising; I was warmly welcomed in a modern office building, and my contact person was supposed to arrive shortly. I was surprised when someone tried to lead me across the factory premises into the warehouse, asking for my safety shoes and hard hat. Luckily, my actual contact arrived shortly after and led me—without safety shoes—two floors up into the office building.“
The Workshop
A large room with a long conference table awaited me. It was nicely prepared with plenty of coffee mugs, cold drinks, and snacks. This created a positive atmosphere and showed appreciation for the seminar. Twelve participants were announced. My contact person managed to get „the other department“ to attend in full force as well.
Gradually, everyone arrived, some armed with laptops because operational IT tasks cannot simply pause for two days. It was a diverse group: experienced veterans, young professionals, and even apprentices.
„Could you step outside with me for a moment?“ one participant asked. Outside, he was direct: „I thought this was an ITIL® training! Why does your slide say FitSM?! What is that?!“ I quickly calmed him down, assuring him that I took his concerns seriously and would address them immediately during my introduction.
The round of introductions, focusing on prior knowledge and expectations, continued this surprising first impression. Besides many participants with little ITSM experience who expressed „general professional interest,“ there were the classic skeptics. Two colleagues had experienced ITIL® years ago and dismissed it as impractical. They only remembered that there were too many processes that didn’t work in reality.
A new and challenging perspective came from another corner: Three colleagues (including the one from outside) had good experiences with ITIL® in previous companies and wanted to continue that here. They argued that structured processes are necessary and sensible, even in smaller organizations. They were curious „if this FitSM can keep up with ITIL®“ and meet their expectations in a direct comparison. The challenge was set, and I was looking forward to it.
To ensure transparency, I documented the expectations on a flip chart and started my presentation. Naturally, I began by distinguishing FitSM from ITIL®. Explaining that FitSM aims to be an achievable, pragmatic framework helped the participants thaw a bit. I shared my years of experience with ITIL® Foundation training, noting that for operational IT staff, much of it is unnecessary knowledge that is forgotten right after the exam. The duration of this workshop proved my point: two days are completely sufficient to provide a comprehensive overview.
During our discussions, it became clear that this company currently had no IT Director. There had been an interim solution, which apparently hadn’t been successful. All that remained of the interim director’s legacy was a „clean desk policy.“ Currently, selected IT staff from various departments took requests directly to executive leadership. My impression was that the IT team was highly engaged but received too little appreciation, especially from management. It was a classic communication problem that I kept in mind.
The Result
Many flip chart pages were filled and, of course, provided to the participants as a PDF afterward. They documented the training content (e.g., what ITSM has to do with running a restaurant) and, more importantly, outlined the next steps.
Since the participants were in a very collaborative and constructive mood, I decided to hold a vote on prioritizing the processes. The result was fascinating:
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Change Management: 8 votes
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Problem Management: 7 votes
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Configuration Management: 6 votes
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Service Reporting and Incident & Service Request Management: 3 votes each
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Continual Service Improvement: 2 votes
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Service Portfolio Management and Service Availability & Continuity Management: 1 vote each
This IT department, even without formal „best practices,“ recognized the benefits of proactive issue management—a focus on sustainability rather than just optimized reactions. A strategic service catalog wasn’t necessary yet. What was missing, however, was Service Level Management, which would certainly help in communication with executive leadership and other business units. One action everyone agreed on was conducting a customer satisfaction survey!
„Now I’d like to put names next to these!“ I said, pleased to meet no resistance. Colleagues volunteered to take responsibility for further work on each chosen process. The team summarized the roles of the new Process Managers based on the training materials. The team was truly engaging with IT Service Management!
Because we progressed so well, we had time to tackle the communication gap between IT and the business (the „executive leadership“). For all selected ITSM processes, I motivated the IT professionals to list the benefits from the business’s perspective. I guided them to evaluate their ideas through the eyes of leadership. It was interesting to see how well this IT team could argue from a business perspective once motivated and guided. In business coaching, we call this a perceptual shift.
For Problem Management, the colleagues saw personal accountability for the sustainable improvement of the IT landscape as a crucial point: „Management can hold us accountable for this, and we have a clear agreement among ourselves.“
„Capital can be raised, factories can be built, but people must be won over.“
— Hans Christoph von Rohr
The feedback form for my seminars includes the question: „How high do you estimate the practical benefit of this seminar (in percent)?“ Not everyone provides an estimate, but more than half did, confirming my positive impression. The numbers ranged from 60% to 80%! I don’t have comparison data for standard ITIL® training, but I doubt they achieve these figures. Alongside ideas for the next steps, the participants took away a significant dose of motivation.
I hope this engaged and motivated IT department can truly implement a part of what we developed together over those two days.