The main emotional drivers of organizations are fear and hope. Fear is kept under control through the management of risk. Hope is embodied and managed via a shared vision.☭ The vast majority of the management activities (as opposed to the manufacturing or service delivery activities) in any organization are derived from this dyad, although fear and hope are frequently more implicit than explicit underpinners of management strategies. [Read more…] about …in a vision once I saw
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The diversity of risk management
In another article, I spoke of vision management and risk management as the two pillars upon which organizations reside. As I have already spoken about vision, let’s take a minute to examine risk in the context of service management in a little more detail. [Read more…] about The diversity of risk management
Gibbs’ Three Laws of Authoring Dynamics (adapted)
Gibbs’ three laws as applied to authoring. The third law is expressed using the Nernst–Simon–Falkowitz restatement.
- The change in the internal energy of an author is equal to the amount of heat put on the author by the publisher, minus the amount of work done by the author on the book.
- In a natural writing process, there is an increase in the sum of the typos of the participating chapters.
- It is impossible for any authoring process, no matter how idealized, to reduce the typos by the author to its absolute-zero value in a finite number of proof-readings.
Be proactive like a true pro
Some organizations consider proactive problem management to be the work of resolving problems when they are not currently causing any incidents. This understanding is in direct conflict with an alternative interpretation, wherein proactive problem management concerns the identification and resolution of problems before they have caused any incidents at all. [Read more…] about Be proactive like a true pro
The Goal of Incident Management
ITIL®‘s version of the goals of incident management
According to the latest version of ITIL®, the goal of incident management is “…to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse impact on business operations…”¹ So there are really two goals mentioned: to restore as quickly as possible and to minimize impact. But, from a customer or user perspective, is it necessary to articulate more than the second goal? If we succeed in minimizing the impact of an incident on the business, are we not, by definition, resolving that incident as rapidly as possible? This might sound like quibbling, but there are some important points that depend on the distinction between these two goals. [Read more…] about The Goal of Incident Management
Priority, Cost of Delay and Kanban
Priority is a classic example of a proxy variable that leads to distortion of service management practices. What do I mean by “proxy variable”, why do I say that this hallowed service management concept leads to distortion and what might we do to remedy this issue? [Read more…] about Priority, Cost of Delay and Kanban
Leaders, managers and bosses
Everyone is talking about leadership
Leadership is a popular theme for pundits these days. Many of them repeat the quote from (at the time) ex-U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt:
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss … The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives. [Read more…] about Leaders, managers and bosses
The Sinking of the Sewol and “Root Cause” Analysis
O why why why why why?
Ohno Taiichi provides an oft-quoted example of using the five whys to perform root cause analysis. His neat little scenario of making durable improvements in the operation of an industrial machine gives a misleading view of the reality of understanding the causes of problems. An analysis of the sinking of the Sewol sheds more light on what really happens to cause problems. [Read more…] about The Sinking of the Sewol and “Root Cause” Analysis