Service Management Won't Work for Us?

Many organizations do not believe common and centralized approach to processes will work for them. I find this particularly interesting. The underlying principles of ITIL and the concept of Service Management have been with us for a very long time. Prior to that, the elements expressed by the "good practices" framework were espoused in the principles of quality. The concepts are not new and, in fact, were used to manage mainframes years before the concept of distributed computing was ever developed.

Often resistance takes many forms but arises out of fear: fear of change; fear of accountability; fear of management. Regardless of the root of the resistance, it propagates unhealthy behaviors. Such behavior has the tendency to:

• Reinforce the perception that a given company is unique;
• Make individuals think their problems are unique to their business;
• Undermine the introduction of new ideas;
• Challenge the rationale of change;
• Promote activity that is incompatible with efficiency and effectiveness;
  
• Promote the sense that the road to success is an expressway.
  

Organizations that cannot come to terms with these issues will indeed struggle to be successful...but not just at implementing Service Management...they will struggle being successful in any endeavor.

Rather than focusing on all the reasons this "stuff" won't work for them, they should redirect their attention to understanding what might work and how IT Service Management can be used.