Whenever someone asks me for a report, my response is usually “Why?  What do you wish to achieve?” I’m not (just) channeling my inner Mordac, rather I’m trying to make the outcome as beneficial as possible. Firstly , a report always answers a question, but that question may be unstated or ill-defined. Secondly, the underlying […]

For his last few blog posts (notably in last week’s blog), James has been teasing about the ITIL “Guiding Principles” highlighted in the current iteration (ITIL4). Whilst I feel like a drum roll might now be anticipated given the build-up, these principles are not new and indeed are common sense!  I’ve often felt that a […]

One aspect of our mission to discover, develop and share knowledge is going to become very tangible again next week… In many ways this past week has been a week of preparation, of anticipation and perhaps a little trepidation (and not just for the new students or their parents!). There are few organisations who have […]

The majority of people don’t want to plan. They want to be free of the responsibility of planning. B. F. Skinner (Walden Two) I once heard a senior manager declare that they didn’t consider disaster planning useful as their staff did their best work under pressure… So, why should we plan?  I think we may […]

For the final Kepner-Tregoe thinking process we return to risk analysis – despite Matt having covered this recently from a change management perspective, I make no apology for the repetition! Many service management disciplines encounter risk as, in the real world, perfect knowledge is not possible – much of what we do will involve a degree of […]

  Decision Analysis is our next Kepner-Tregoe thinking process.  The steps provided will be very familiar to anyone who has undertaken a procurement, theft or recruitment exercise, yet they can be scaled down to decision making at an operational level.  A key aim of this process is to balance benefits and risks. 1. State Decision […]

A situation when in the opinion of the master, the vessel, vehicle, aircraft or person is in grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance. International conventions (SOLAS, COLREG) clearly establish when a distress signal (such as a “Mayday” call) may be made.  These same conventions bind those that receive a distress signal to respond in a particular way. Our […]

Problem Analysis is probably the most well known of the Kepner-Tregoe thinking processes, and the one referenced in the ITIL textbooks.  Almost certainly your current job description includes a “problem solving” section, yet I suspect that problem solving rarely proceeds via a systematic process and instead is often intuitive and sporadic.  How many times has […]

What’s happening?  This is the first and most repeated question in a major incident or critical continuity event. Situation Appraisal is the Kepner-Tregoe thinking process designed to answer this question. The steps are simple in theory: Identify (and log) concerns/issues Set priority Plan next steps Manage involvement However in practice, folk tend to leap all […]

No, not the names of the two muppets in the balcony, but a mysterious problem management technique mentioned in the ITIL® guidance. In “Service Support” (the v2 “blue book”) it was summarised as the following: Defining the Problem Describing the Problem with regard to identity, location, time and size Establishing the possible causes Testing the […]