creativity in iT Service Management

Climb that mountain and don’t lose anyone along the way.

Leadership is mission control. The more you can move leadership decisions closer to the front lines the faster your team can move mountains and deliver value. Set goals around the mission, learning, and those that encourage creative innovation. Advertise successes via ITSM News posts to keep the interest levels high and people informed.

Get creative experimenting with different ways of collaborating. Work at pace within teams and between teams. Use the best tools and techniques you can harness. Make your messages stand out and remove silos.

1. Try eye-catching images in your email notifications

2. Use Nudge reminders via Teams and Skype chats

3. Practice Daily stand-ups at a time when most staff can make it (11:45am works well for Service Desk staff)

4. Have weekly Team Meetings

5. Create MS Teams Channels and Pin important Chats

6. Knowledge Management updates

7. Curiosity - get information feeds from your Project Managers supplied to your Ops Staff.

Major Incidents are like turbulent rivers and you need to gain control.

COMMS: Timely communications to stakeholders, customers and tech staff is vital.  Communicate via as many channels as you can muster: 

Text to Mobile | Email Groups | Intranet | Internal Social Media.

FIX: Rapid "swarming" on the issue with elite technical staff is essential. The formation of a CIRG: Critical Incident Response Group, is a game changer.

AFTER: Problem management and deep dive root cause analysis ensures that the issue does not happen again - within the limits of your technology.

Meandering rivers change in predictable patterns. You want your Changes to do the same. Changes allow the organisation to evolve and adapt. Organise wide-reaching peer review processes to reduce the potential of major incidents arising. CAB and Stakeholder email groups can facilitate the review with "many eyes", in the spirit of improving the quality of the Change and enhancing success. Run CAB more than once a week so that Change Control does not become a bottleneck.

Keeping your senior stakeholders informed is essential for clarity, transparency and improved decision making. Don’t forget to include Superusers and Customer Team Leads who are also a vital part of the communication playing field.

The Grand Canyon is the largest “crack” on earth, don’t let your service desk allow cracks to form between your IT teams and your users. Teach your staff to build bridges, to have customer focus, and treat customers like you would family members, with care and consideration.
Customers have questions, your team has the answers.