ABC of ICT workshop using Apollo

What is the ABC of ICT?

ABC of ICT stands for the Attitude, Behaviour and Culture within ICT organizations. In the past 10 years or so many IT organizations have adopted  ‘best practice’  frameworks such as ITIL to bring IT under control. Many organizations have failed to realize the expected benefits of these frameworks. Why is this? Because of ABC issues. It is our belief that it is the ABC ‘Worst practices’ that will determine the success or failure of your ITSM improvement initiatives, not the frameworks and the models.

 It is ABC that will prevent you from realizing the value offered by these frameworks.
It is ABC that presents a business risk.

‘….ABC is like an Iceberg. Much of it is hidden beneath the surface yet is capable of inflicting enormous damage….’

Fact: ITSM and frameworks such as ITIL are becoming increasingly important for IT companies in order to bring IT under control. A CIO.com investigation revealed 96% of CIOs will be investing in ITIL.

Fact: Many ITIL implementations or ITSM improvement initiatives fail to achieve their desired aims. A Forrester report revealed that the biggest reasons for ITIL initiatives failing is resistance to change 52%, failing to get buy-in and acceptance (Attitude), the second reason was lack of business interest (Attitude).

Fact: A survey we conducted with a 1000 students having played the ‘Apollo 13 – An ITSM case experience’™ revealed the single biggest success and fail factor is ‘People’ related (Attitude, Behavior, Culture).

Fact: We can NO LONGER AFFORD to have ITIL and ITSM improvement programs FAIL because of the growing importance of IT to the business.

Fact: In a mini survey with itSMF members, using our ABC worst practice cards, 94% of respondents felt that current ITIL training and certification does not adequately address ABC issues, although V3 is promising to.

Fact: IT organizations need help in identifying and solving these ABC issues if ITSM initiatives are to finally succeed.

Solution

 ‘Apollo 13 – Transforming ABC’  is a specific variant of the ‘Apollo 13- An ITSM case experience’ business simulation. It is an interactive business simulation workshop. This simulation can be used to realize a wide range of learning objectives. In this version of simulation delivery, participants are confronted with the impact of their own attitude, behavior and culture on organizational performance.  They will realize a shift in attitude and behavior as the day progresses, and will be able to translate these experiences to their daily working environment.

 

learning objectives

• Confront participants with their own A, B, C and how these impact colleagues and organizational performance.
• Identify common ABC mistakes encountered when adopting and deploying best practice frameworks.
• Identify success factors for dealing with ABC and increase the chance of success of your ITSM improvement initiatives.
• Learn more about personal ownership and accountability.
• Learn more about applying continual improvement initiatives.
• Show the effects of new behavior on performance and create a change in attitude.
• Create buy-in and commitment for ITSM best practices.

 

TARGET AUDIENCE

• Managers wanting to ensure ITSM improvement initiatives are not derailed by ABC issues
• ITSM improvement project managers wanting to ensure project success
• Employees requiring understanding of their role in contributing to IT organizational performance
• Employees requiring an understanding of  the benefits of process based working
• Process managers and project managers responsible for implementing and managing processes
• CIOs and Senior IT managers faced with a need to improve IT organizational performance

 What ABC worst practices does this address?

 

The ABC of ICT worst practice card set identifies 57 industry recognized ABC worst practices. The ABC of ICT card set is a normal set of playing cards containing worst practice examples. This card set is an awareness and assessment instrument and can be used in team exercises and workshops to analyze ABC issues. Below is a list of the most common ABC issues in relation to ITSM improvement initiatives (As identified by the results of exercises and workshops using the ABC of ICT cards, and shows how Apollo 13 helps address these issues.

 

ABC worst practice card	How Apollo helps
ITSM frameworks
Throwing Process flows and procedures ‘over the Wall’ and HOPING people will follow them.	Participants from different teams or departments must design, test, analyze and improve their procedures together.
ITIL or a best practice method or framework is the GOAL, not what you do with it.	Participants are given a set of Performance targets and must demonstrate they can use best practices to realize measurable. demonstrable goals.
Process flows and procedures are the most important.	Participants learn how to apply People, Process, Product and Partner capabilities to realize goals.
‘My TOOL will solve ALL your problems!...’	Participants learn that a Tool is only part of the solution, and learn how to design a tool to support THEIR own tasks and responsibilities.
Process managers without AUTHORITY	Participants learn to assign appropriate levels of authority for prioritizing and escalating workloads. Supporting decision making and response.
ITSM improvement initiatives are characterized by ‘PLAN, DO, STOP!...’	Participants learn in 4 rounds how to analyze and improve their OWN work. Working together as an end-to-end team, selecting and applying improvements that will enable goals to be achieved.
Users & Customers
Too little respect for or understanding of ‘Users’.	In the simulation the facilitator plays the Customer and User and puts the team under pressure. The participants must learn to engage and negotiate with the Business and Users, in order to prioritize and make the right decisions.
No understanding of business impact and priority	In the simulation the participants learn the need to agree priorities and impact with both the users (crew) and the customers(Mission Director).
Neither partner (Business nor IT) makes an effort to understand the other.	The simulation includes both business(demand) and deliver(supply) roles. Participants can be made up of YOUR own business and IT staff. In the simulation they learn how dependent they are upon each other and how they need to engage and align to make the right decisions aimed at creating value and minimizing risks.
Everything has the highest priority according to the users.	Participants are confronted with the impact of conflicting priorities and how these cause risks, delays, outages and downtime.
Too little business involvement in requirements specification and testing.	In Round 1. The team must build an Apollo rocket to support business needs. The teams must engage with the Users and Customers to ensure that the Rocket meets business needs. Playing this with Business and IT participants helps show the dependency upon each other throughout the build process.
Value
We don’t measure our VALUE contribution to strategy.	During the simulation participants must learn how to capture and report on their performance and how this relates to the business strategy of NASA. But more importantly they must also demonstrate that they can improve and meet business Value demands by applying the right BEHAVIOUR.
IT thinks it doesn’t need to understand the business to make a business case.	During the simulation the teams must justify their ITSM improvement actions between rounds. They must make a business case relating to ‘customer satisfaction’, ‘Costs’, ‘Throughput’, ‘availability and continuity’, ‘timeliness of deployment’.
People & Resistance
ITIL never work here.	At the end of the simulation teams will see, feel and experience the benefits of process based working, applying people, product, process and partners. Helping create a shift in attitude and demonstrating how behaving according to agreements and best practices improves their own work and job satisfaction as well as organizational performance.
Never mind about following procedures….just do what we normally do!	During the simulation the teams are confronted with the impact of NOT sticking to agreements, the impact of non desirable ‘BEHAVIOUR’.
Knowledge is power.	During the simulation the participants are confronted with the need to share and transfer knowledge in order to achieve goals, they also learn that by transferring knowledge they are able to perform more complex, higher value tasks and activities.
Not my responsibility.	Participants learn the importance of clearly defined tasks, roles and responsibilities and learn to delegate and receive ownership of responsibilities. Participants are confronted with the impact of NOT sticking to responsibilities.
IT people are too internally focused.	During the simulation participants are forced to engage and interact with Users and Customers and realize that they cannot perform unless they balance internal and external focus.
ABC is like an Iceberg. Much of it hidden beneath the surface yet capable of inflicting enormous damage.	During the workshop these ABC issues are made visible, as well as the impact. In this safe environment they can be discussed and related to the participants own environment. Awareness is created as well as a recognized need to change ABC.

 

Do you recognize any of these worst practices in YOUR organization?

Are you currently addressing them?

Can you afford NOT too?

Apollo 13 will help you.

 

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In this training, real life situations taken from the Apollo 13 mission are simulated. Participants will enact the roles of the Mission Operations Control team of Apollo 13. They will have to work together as a team, take decisions, agree and apply their own working practices in order to meet their service level targets and save the astronauts. In 1970 we know Mission Control managed to successfully apply people, processes and supporting technology in saving the crew. The participants are faced with the challenge of performing as well as Mission Control.
The workshop consists of 4 rounds. In each round the team undergoes the following steps: In 1970 we know Mission Control managed to successfully apply people, processes and supporting technology in saving the crew. The participants are faced with the challenge of performing as well as Mission Control.The workshop consists of 4 rounds. In each round the team undergoes the following steps:

• Step 1: Designing or improving their process
• Step 2: Applying their process
• Step 3: Reflecting and reporting
• Step 4: Make decisions what to improve

 At the end of the session key learning points can be captured as well as improvement needs within the participants own organization. Managers can capture the output and use it for individual and team development plans as well as input for ITSM improvement programs to ensure ABC issues are adequately addressed.