Let me begin by stating that I wasn’t sure if the next iteration would be ITIL V4, ITIL 20xx, or ITIL 7 (after Microsoft’s change in their naming convention that ITIL seems to be following), so I’m taking a gamble and sticking with the M$ pattern in the hopes that I once again can brag about how right I am.

While at the Pink 2012 conference I had the chance to attend the IT Skeptic’s presentation on his Tipu method for agile IT Service Management (http://www.basicsm.com/tipu).  Needless to say, I’m loving it (for right now anyway since I’m a bit fickle).  What struck me as a “duh” moment though, is that in the early parts of the session the Skeptic talked about the need to focus on people to make improvements rather than technology or processes.  No real surprise there since “changing” people is the real challenge related to the cultural aspect of ITSM improvements.  Fast forward a few days later and I was looking over a presentation from a newly met peer titled Emotional – Social Intelligence for Project Management.  I’ll admit that I don’t live in the project management space (as well as not having much of emotional or social intelligence), but after digging through related websites and reading some news in the Twitterverse, I’m getting the impression that the biggest challenge in IT Service Management isn’t process or technology, but rather the people (ok, I’ve known this for a while, but I’d rather use it to introduce my topic).  There has, and probably always will be, a lot of talk about changing attitude, behaviour and culture (if only someone could create a workshop covering the three).

So where am I going with these thoughts?  I hope you noticed the title of the blog says it all – Behavioural Management as a formal process.  Let’s face it, if ITIL is about delivering value, and the delivery of that value requires a person, or people, to constantly be trying to change behaviours and culture, it’s obvious that we should formally acknowledge and validate that there needs to be some process, or at least some function, wrapped around that goal.  Yes, I know that as ITSM practitioners, we tend to rely on our own intrinsic skills to make cultural change happen, and the most successful of us are fantastic at it, but how many organizations would benefit from a resource with a dedicated skill-set geared solely to help with the “people factor?”  Please keep in mind that my idea of “Behavioural Management” isn’t aligned with the movie A Clockwork Orange (even though I’ve considered it during some implementations), but rather someone that can help get the biggest value out of ITSM improvements by maximizing the way we influence the culture.  Think of it as a professional psychologist in the IT space; a role that has the background and skills to really look at all the projects and make recommendations to gain the most acceptance with the least amount of work (I am lazy and would prefer to do as little work as possible anyway).

So, am I crazy in thinking ITSM and ITIL could benefit from a purely psychotherapeutic role in IT?  Probably.  But the fact remains that people resist change and as practitioners, we recognize this as one of the biggest challenges.  So why not consider it as a formal process in ITIL?  I’m sure the authors are looking for more material to add to the next version anyway.

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Started working in IT in 1999 as a support desk analyst as a way to help pay for food during college. Studied Electrical Engineering for two years before realizing biochemistry was more fun than differential equations, and so ultimately graduated with a Biology degree in 2006. Having (reluctantly) failed at getting accepted into dental school, embraced working in IT and has gone broke becoming an ITIL Expert. Likes to jog, sing camp songs, quote Mel Brooks movie lines and make dumb jokes and loves working for an Israeli tech company where December 25th is a regular work day.