Top 10 types of resistance in the development of IT
Using the regular approach of ABC of ICT, I found out that there is very little information about this (I met him myself through a link somewhere in the comments). I got a good article by the method and decided to translate it, maybe someone will want to get closer acquainted with this approach to the development and management of processes in companies.
The original is published on the GamingWorks website (creators of the most popular business simulations for IT around the world)
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A lot of text
The result of the last 2500 ITIL surveyed specialists in 15 countries speak of a significant number of failures in the implementation of ITIL.
As IT is becoming increasingly important for business, more and more IT organizations are turning to ITIL and other ITSM libraries to increase control and provide services that are beneficial to the business. ITIL V3 perfectly emphasizes that we in IT should bring “value for customers according to expected results without carrying risks and specific costs”.
Unfortunately, many ITSM development programs fail. The results show that from 70% to 80% are not able to bring benefits. The Forester report showed that 52% fail because of the resistance of employees within companies. These failures mean useless expenses and increased business risks. Is it time to stop failing projects?
Despite more than 2 million ITIL-certificates all over the world, so far most of the undertakings do not go as expected, according to figures. Personally, I played Apollo-13 in our business simulations with more than 1000 different customer organizations and I can also say that the results of the program confirm the difficulties faced by organizations using best practice and only adapting to them. Obviously, something is missing in the training and certification approaches that are usually offered! If we want, finally, to remove these empty costs and risks and bring real benefits with the help of ITSM frameworks, it is very important to determine these types of resistance in order to know what to do with them.
We interviewed 2,250 ITIL specialists who jointly participated in nearly 100 ITSM improvement projects in order to identify the most common types of resistance. For this, we used cards from the ABC of ICT methodology and asked to choose 3 types of resistance that they most often met.
We also discussed this in a number of ITIL groups on LinkedIn and grouped the results according to the ABC of ICT methodology. The ITSMF community (ITSM Foundation) in the United States also conducted a series of workshops to gain feedback in this area.
This article displays a generalized 10 types of collective resistance during development.
Lack of leadership support
The importance of ITIL is conveyed only in words, in other words, management does not promote ITIL. Managers who do not help with solving problems like "Say" Yes ", we mean" No "." A guide that does not allocate resources. Managers who become frustrated due to lack of quick results and stop participating. As can be seen from the discussions in LinkedIn, the involvement of management must be conscious and supported by observing quick wins from projects and initiatives so that they continue to support the project and participate in it. The result of discussions in Linkedin this topic brings it to 1 position. This suggests that the leadership is not ready to constantly support what has been started. Very often they simply do not know what is expected of them as support.
We say "Yes", we mean "No"
People promise to perform some tasks and do not perform by doing something else. Or, with the support of the customer, they promise to follow the procedures or use some tools, but they do not fulfill the promise. When the behavior also begins to be observed by the manuals or it simply does not cope and thus closes the chain, then a closed loop of errors and problems appears and the employees say “See! We told you that ITIL would not be the best option. ” Without management involvement, this problem will thwart your development plans.
ITIL is not an end in itself
Very often we tell companies “what will happen” and not “for what reason”. ITIL is not a goal to achieve with the help of oneself.
“The rest use ITIL and we also have to ...”, “We are going to implement ITIL ...”, “That's what the book says! ..” Very often ITIL-projects are too large and complex and “do not meet the goals set”. People are trying to "implement" too much and too quickly setting unworkable goals. Ask everyone at your company for a definition of ITIL service. Too few will answer this question. Tell them the connection of all this with benefits and results, and compliance with costs and risks, as well as explain in the context of what your organization is trying to comply with ITIL.
Plan, Do, Stop ... Lack of focus on development
Too often, ITIL projects are just projects. Which results are not used for stable development and confirmation of the fact that a business should develop, IT solutions are being implemented to maintain ITSM compliance with business, processes continue to bring benefits and protect against ever-increasing costs and risks.
Never mind following instructions, just do what you are used to.
People don't like to change. If they see no reason for it or benefit from it, they can resist change. If management involvement is too small, this resistance will quickly increase. This can be observed at any level, including business and users, if they perceive ITIL as a barrier to something.
ITIL will never work here
General type of resistance to changes in working methods. Lack of understanding that ITIL is needed or what will bring change.
Often, no one told the staff or convinced of the need for change, or they refuse to understand that it is really necessary. After people are against ITIL, resistance will be motivated by lack of time or resources. If you increase the need to use ITIL, this argument will seem more meaningful and will cause resistance from employees.
Do not control the decision, believing that people will follow it
Despite the more than 15 years of ITIL's existence, training and certification, annual itSMF conferences with hundreds of presentations and examples, we still do not know how to adapt and apply ITIL. We still make mistakes forcing people to develop their own processes and procedures. We still believe that ITIL can "implement" or "use." In the "ABC of ICT" experts share their approaches and make recommendations on this. Findings can be found in the article “ What the experts say ” to help determine how to successfully adapt and apply ITIL ... Does anyone feel responsible for reading and acting according to ITIL ... or most people behave according to the principle “not my area of ​​responsibility ".
IT does not need to understand business to form a business case.
A study using ABC cards among IT organizations at the 1st place showed “IT understands too little the priorities and impact on the business.” In part, it still relates to the fact that IT is still too “focused on itself”. Often we see business cases or sets of metrics and indicators, but they are “focused on themselves” and too weakly focused on customers or services. There is practically no link between “benefits”, “results”, “costs” and “risks”. IT of course can argue for exactly what their metrics are used ... but ask the business if they agree that these are the indicators, benefits and expectations that they need. Generalized resistance to changes in workflow. The lack of confidence in the need for ITIL or that it will change something. Often, no one explained to employees the need for change, or they refuse to understand that it is really necessary. After people are against ITIL, resistance will be motivated by lack of time or resources. If you increase the need to use ITIL, this argument will seem more meaningful and will cause resistance from employees.
Cannot indicate the benefits expected by the business.
We still do not fully understand the benefits and results that need to be achieved using ITIL. 70% of ITIL projects are still not able to demonstrate any benefit. IT is not considered as a partner who benefits and does not know how to gain trust from the business. When at the ITIL conference we asked for a definition of service - less than 5% raise their hands and at the same time are busy with its “implementation”. The question is, “what are they going to get from ITIL?”
According to users, everything has the highest priority.
Surprisingly, but after 15 years of working with ITIL, most companies do not understand the priority, importance and expected benefits for a business using ITIL.
We would like to know who overcame these types of resistance from business so that it can be shared with the community. If you are just starting work on an ITSM development program, take care of them. Make sure your consultants or training centers know how they will overcome these types of resistance from the company's employees.
View the full list of resistances that were discussed in LinkedIn by downloading this document .
PS Translation was carried out close to the original, so some turns may seem difficult or not entirely clear, I tried to keep the style of presentation of the original. Translation published by permission of GamingWorks. The article is based on the materials of the book “ABC of ICT”, by Paul Wilkinson and Jan Schilt
The original is published on the GamingWorks website (creators of the most popular business simulations for IT around the world)
')
A lot of text
The result of the last 2500 ITIL surveyed specialists in 15 countries speak of a significant number of failures in the implementation of ITIL.
As IT is becoming increasingly important for business, more and more IT organizations are turning to ITIL and other ITSM libraries to increase control and provide services that are beneficial to the business. ITIL V3 perfectly emphasizes that we in IT should bring “value for customers according to expected results without carrying risks and specific costs”.
Unfortunately, many ITSM development programs fail. The results show that from 70% to 80% are not able to bring benefits. The Forester report showed that 52% fail because of the resistance of employees within companies. These failures mean useless expenses and increased business risks. Is it time to stop failing projects?
Despite more than 2 million ITIL-certificates all over the world, so far most of the undertakings do not go as expected, according to figures. Personally, I played Apollo-13 in our business simulations with more than 1000 different customer organizations and I can also say that the results of the program confirm the difficulties faced by organizations using best practice and only adapting to them. Obviously, something is missing in the training and certification approaches that are usually offered! If we want, finally, to remove these empty costs and risks and bring real benefits with the help of ITSM frameworks, it is very important to determine these types of resistance in order to know what to do with them.
We interviewed 2,250 ITIL specialists who jointly participated in nearly 100 ITSM improvement projects in order to identify the most common types of resistance. For this, we used cards from the ABC of ICT methodology and asked to choose 3 types of resistance that they most often met.
We also discussed this in a number of ITIL groups on LinkedIn and grouped the results according to the ABC of ICT methodology. The ITSMF community (ITSM Foundation) in the United States also conducted a series of workshops to gain feedback in this area.
This article displays a generalized 10 types of collective resistance during development.
Lack of leadership support
The importance of ITIL is conveyed only in words, in other words, management does not promote ITIL. Managers who do not help with solving problems like "Say" Yes ", we mean" No "." A guide that does not allocate resources. Managers who become frustrated due to lack of quick results and stop participating. As can be seen from the discussions in LinkedIn, the involvement of management must be conscious and supported by observing quick wins from projects and initiatives so that they continue to support the project and participate in it. The result of discussions in Linkedin this topic brings it to 1 position. This suggests that the leadership is not ready to constantly support what has been started. Very often they simply do not know what is expected of them as support.
We say "Yes", we mean "No"
People promise to perform some tasks and do not perform by doing something else. Or, with the support of the customer, they promise to follow the procedures or use some tools, but they do not fulfill the promise. When the behavior also begins to be observed by the manuals or it simply does not cope and thus closes the chain, then a closed loop of errors and problems appears and the employees say “See! We told you that ITIL would not be the best option. ” Without management involvement, this problem will thwart your development plans.
ITIL is not an end in itself
Very often we tell companies “what will happen” and not “for what reason”. ITIL is not a goal to achieve with the help of oneself.
“The rest use ITIL and we also have to ...”, “We are going to implement ITIL ...”, “That's what the book says! ..” Very often ITIL-projects are too large and complex and “do not meet the goals set”. People are trying to "implement" too much and too quickly setting unworkable goals. Ask everyone at your company for a definition of ITIL service. Too few will answer this question. Tell them the connection of all this with benefits and results, and compliance with costs and risks, as well as explain in the context of what your organization is trying to comply with ITIL.
Plan, Do, Stop ... Lack of focus on development
Too often, ITIL projects are just projects. Which results are not used for stable development and confirmation of the fact that a business should develop, IT solutions are being implemented to maintain ITSM compliance with business, processes continue to bring benefits and protect against ever-increasing costs and risks.
Never mind following instructions, just do what you are used to.
People don't like to change. If they see no reason for it or benefit from it, they can resist change. If management involvement is too small, this resistance will quickly increase. This can be observed at any level, including business and users, if they perceive ITIL as a barrier to something.
ITIL will never work here
General type of resistance to changes in working methods. Lack of understanding that ITIL is needed or what will bring change.
Often, no one told the staff or convinced of the need for change, or they refuse to understand that it is really necessary. After people are against ITIL, resistance will be motivated by lack of time or resources. If you increase the need to use ITIL, this argument will seem more meaningful and will cause resistance from employees.
Do not control the decision, believing that people will follow it
Despite the more than 15 years of ITIL's existence, training and certification, annual itSMF conferences with hundreds of presentations and examples, we still do not know how to adapt and apply ITIL. We still make mistakes forcing people to develop their own processes and procedures. We still believe that ITIL can "implement" or "use." In the "ABC of ICT" experts share their approaches and make recommendations on this. Findings can be found in the article “ What the experts say ” to help determine how to successfully adapt and apply ITIL ... Does anyone feel responsible for reading and acting according to ITIL ... or most people behave according to the principle “not my area of ​​responsibility ".
IT does not need to understand business to form a business case.
A study using ABC cards among IT organizations at the 1st place showed “IT understands too little the priorities and impact on the business.” In part, it still relates to the fact that IT is still too “focused on itself”. Often we see business cases or sets of metrics and indicators, but they are “focused on themselves” and too weakly focused on customers or services. There is practically no link between “benefits”, “results”, “costs” and “risks”. IT of course can argue for exactly what their metrics are used ... but ask the business if they agree that these are the indicators, benefits and expectations that they need. Generalized resistance to changes in workflow. The lack of confidence in the need for ITIL or that it will change something. Often, no one explained to employees the need for change, or they refuse to understand that it is really necessary. After people are against ITIL, resistance will be motivated by lack of time or resources. If you increase the need to use ITIL, this argument will seem more meaningful and will cause resistance from employees.
Cannot indicate the benefits expected by the business.
We still do not fully understand the benefits and results that need to be achieved using ITIL. 70% of ITIL projects are still not able to demonstrate any benefit. IT is not considered as a partner who benefits and does not know how to gain trust from the business. When at the ITIL conference we asked for a definition of service - less than 5% raise their hands and at the same time are busy with its “implementation”. The question is, “what are they going to get from ITIL?”
According to users, everything has the highest priority.
Surprisingly, but after 15 years of working with ITIL, most companies do not understand the priority, importance and expected benefits for a business using ITIL.
We would like to know who overcame these types of resistance from business so that it can be shared with the community. If you are just starting work on an ITSM development program, take care of them. Make sure your consultants or training centers know how they will overcome these types of resistance from the company's employees.
View the full list of resistances that were discussed in LinkedIn by downloading this document .
PS Translation was carried out close to the original, so some turns may seem difficult or not entirely clear, I tried to keep the style of presentation of the original. Translation published by permission of GamingWorks. The article is based on the materials of the book “ABC of ICT”, by Paul Wilkinson and Jan Schilt
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/138209/
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