The People side of Process Improvement

I said this many years ago as I was wrestling with various IT silos, wicked problems and generally poor behavior as attempts were made to make meaningful (i.e., transformative) changes to organizations.

I believe that the real road to a quality culture has more to do with people than with process (which may make some ITIL fanatics scream in horror), since in the absence of process it is values that carry the day. I am in awe of many IT professionals — many much smarter than I — who are literally killing themselves keeping the cars on the road as the business keeps its foot firmly on the accelerator (and in some cases on IT’s neck). They have my admiration (and sympathy).

Savage Journey [from HST’s Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas]

For those customers who lack both process and values, it was nice knowing you. The business and IT are simply getting too complex, the world is moving too fast, and big brother’s getting much better at watching you for you to last much longer.


For those of you who know the difference between right and wrong, and are struggling to do the right thing (i.e., best practice), then consider this a place to vent, to rant and to share some humor as we continue down what we know is the Right Road. A savage journey indeed, and what a strange trip it will be.

All kidding aside, continuous improvement in the enterprise continues to be a people challenge and this is especially true when leaders want to transform the organization. The pace of change certainly hasn’t slowed down in the last decade.

These kinds of changes are perfectly suited for Conscious Change Leadership, which is why I’m glad to be an affiliate of BeingFirst. I’m looking forward to learning much more about this now that I have the time, and welcome a discussion with any change leaders on this topic.

Published by myservicemonitor

I am an independent service management consultant with two decades of experience helping customers.

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