Guest host post by Lisa Schwartz It is time to get back to sponsoring tradeshows! And here at ITSM Academy that means our mascot, Franny the Flamingo is going to Las Vegas. She's been with us at every conference since the early 2000s and I am sure she is ready to hit the road, via my suitcase, to represent again. And her moment is here. We just signed as a sponsor of #Pink23. It was an easy decision, year-over-year, the conference is awesome. This year, one of the options is to host, and name, the Signature Drink. During the February conference, Franny will be celebrating her 19th birthday - the Canadian legal drinking age. It seemed fitting to honor her contribution to ITSM Academy by calling the #Pink23 Signature Drink the Festive Flamingo . That way, everyone attending can join Franny’s birthday bash. #flamingoals As it happens, @ITSMDonna is also celebrating her birthday in February and we take birthdays very seriously - paid holiday seriously - here at the Academy.
By Donna Knapp For many organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed one of two ends of a spectrum: poorly defined processes, or overly-rigorous processes. At either end of the spectrum, these organizations likely struggled to adapt as the pandemic impacted our lives. For those with poorly defined processes, things were probably pretty chaotic. For those with overly-rigorous processes, things were most certainly taking way too long. Even organizations with well-defined processes felt, and continue to feel, pressure to speed up the flow of work, minimize toil, and automate processes where possible. To do this, they must develop a culture of continuous improvement and learning. Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve all aspects of an organization; its people, processes, tools, products, services, and experiences… all of which are tightly integrated. Whether improvements are large or small, what matters most is that they are constant. The highest performing organizations a