Keeping People Engaged

One of the most important questions we can ask in ITSM is “How do we keep people engaged and excited about ITSM?” This question is fraught with danger. If too little energy is put into keeping people engaged then ITSM has a chance of withering and dying. If too much energy is put into the people aspect then other important efforts gets sacrificed. So how do we find the right balance? How do we know what is the right level of energy to employ in an effort to keep ITSM on a steady path for your organization?

The answer lies in the concept of engagement. The term means to hold the attention or efforts of a person. To keep people engaged we must therefore keep everyone involved, active and attentive to ITSM in our organizations. How do we keep people engaged? By giving them new opportunities to learn, demonstrate capabilities and new challenges to overcome. We can provide new areas for exploration and engagement by using process and maturity assessments to identify current levels of maturity and desired levels of maturity. By conducting a gap analysis we can then build a roadmap between our current state and the future state we need to create for our customers.

By continuing to seek a perfect ITSM environment right out of the gate, an organization will end up stagnating itself and its people. You can overcome this potential stagnation by having a sense of where you are going (What is the vision?) and your current state (Where are we now?). Upon identifying the gap between those the organization can look for new areas to engage and challenge the people.

Once I know the other areas that need improvement I can shift people into those areas to give them new challenges, opportunities and horizons. This will create a fresh outlook in people and move them away from the stagnation of trying to gain incrementally small returns on their current improvement efforts. An example would be to look at your current metrics. Are they “good enough” to bring value to the customers? If they are, then look for other areas that are not faring so well and shift people to focus on improving the new areas rather than achieving 100% perfection in the existing areas.

The key to keeping the momentum of ITSM going is to keep the momentum of your people and resources engaged in areas of improvement or new horizons. Your organization and employees both need to overcome the inertia that tends to slow down potentially successful efforts. Watch for signs that the effort is stagnating by watching for stagnation in your people. Look for new opportunities for your people to help find new opportunities for your business. Engaged people will help the organization to find new and successful horizons.

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