What is ABC of ICT^TM?

ABC of ICT^TM 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. Meanwhile IT is becoming increasingly critical to all businesses. It must be under control.

70% of ITSM improvement initiatives using ITIL are unable to demonstrate the added value or fail to achieve the desired outcomes. 52% of ITIL initiatives fail because of resistance. Many IT organizations send their staff on ITIL training to obtain a certificate in ITIL.

Why do so many fail?

It is because of ABC (Attitude, behavior and culture).

ABC is like an iceberg, much of it hidden beneath the surface yet capable of stopping your improvement initiative dead in the water or sending you off on a direction you don't want to be. This is the reason many fail, the iceberg beneath the surface has remained hidden for too long. We ignore it, we avoid discussing it. Traditional ITIL training hasn't helped address it.

‘Attitude'

This is what people think and feel. It is their demeanour and how they react to the world about them. How they react to a change initiative, a colleague or a customer.

Examples of attitude are:

• somebody thinking "The users are ALWAYS complaining....just ignore them they will soon go away!"
• somebody thinking "...I'll believe that when I see it..." after a manager has just announced 100% commitment to the ITIL program.

‘Behavior'

This is what people do. Behaviour is influenced by attitude and by the culture of the organization.

Examples of behaviour are:

• somebody saying they will follow the ITIL procedures but not doing it.
• not registering a resolution, or not transferring knowledge to a first line employee even though you know it would help, and even knowing you should be doing it.

‘Culture'

This can be described as the accepted ways of working within an organization, the values and standards that people find as normal.

Examples of culture are:

• ‘Knowledge is power', or the ‘hero culture' in this type of culture people believe that sharing knowledge diminishes their own value, therefore they want to be the only ones with the expertise and knowledge, they are the hero's.
• The blame culture. Everybody points the finger of blame and mistakes are punished.

In fact you could say that ‘Attitude' is individual and comes as a result of personal beliefs and experiences which influences behaviour. Culture is often difficult to grasp but could be described as the corporate attitude. Often employees in an organization are unaware of the culture and how this influences their personal attitude and behaviour. This is why culture is one of the most difficult things to change. It is ‘soft' you can't see it, you can't touch it, you know it's there, you can get bogged down in it and unable to move, it can stop a change program in its tracks. It is something to be taken seriously if you want your change program to succeed..... it would seem that the most common approach is to ignore it and hope that it will go away or change by itself.