At GogoTraining our students get to ask the instructor’s questions while they train, and we wanted to share a great student question on ITIL 4 Foundation and the caliber of answer students can expect to receive.  Suzanne brings the classroom to life online by going the extra mile and fully and completely answering their questions just as though they were in the classroom.  Kudos, Suzanne!

 The student asked: 

Hello Suzanne, Many thanks your great and easy to follow class. I have a question in ITIL 4 Foundation course module “Start Where You Are”.  You have a great example of the check-out person who took a personal interest in your discussion while she was checking out your items but received a bad score because the system graded her on speed of checking out. Your last bullet states “good measurements shouldn’t influence behavior”. If that is the case, what should it influence? I’ve studied all types of businesses that say you should inspect what you expect. Tying bonuses and commissions to behavior based outcomes is what I’ve been trained to do, so this concept is a very new one for me. Can you please elaborate? Thanks.

Dr. Van Hove Answered:

Thank you for your kind words. You have a great question — good measures should measure the qualities the organization has deemed important, and in the case of this check-out person, she demonstrated “intelligent disobedience” (a new term in the Managing Professional materials). It was appropriate that she ignore the metrics because she improved the customer experience. What annoyed me in this scenario, was that there wasn’t a compensation for that action. The other side of the coin is when workers only work to achieve the metrics (resolve calls in 90 seconds) and they don’t do their job but rather perform to the metric because it is tied to pay/rewards, etc… That is a BAD metric and that is what we are trying to avoid. So, the point is that metrics should reflect the business and consumer requirements, they should be known to the staff as targets to be achieved, but they shouldn’t be written where common sense, customer experience (and for that matter, employee experience) be ignored, frivolously attended to, etc. Bonuses and commissions are directly tied to individual performance to the OVERALL ACHIEVEMENT of the organization and I believe that is a bit different that my example. The bullet, to be clear, means we don’t want the metric to **become the behavior** but rather the metric measures the desired service component. I hope that makes more sense. Thanks for the question — enjoy the rest of the course and good luck on the exam! Cheers! Suzanne

I have been struggling with how to explain what the VeriSM™ Approach is and why anyone should care for some time now.  We have worked with Dr. Suzanne Van Hove for years.  We admire Suzanne and know that if she gets behind something that we need to take notice.  Suzanne is an educator and an expert…the real deal.  So why have I had such a hard time understanding why the VeriSM Approach was developed?

Why I Didn’t Understand

To be honest I think it was because I was too IT focused and did not understand the depth and breadth of the VeriSM Approach.  It started when Suzanne told me she wanted to produce the VeriSM courses.  I said sure and we did it.  Then I started to talking to my main audience, IT Professionals, and no one got it.  They all asked me, “why do we need VeriSM when we have ITIL, AGILE, DevOps, etc?”  Until now, I did not have an answer.  I knew that VeriSM did not replace ITIL or AGILE or DevOps, etc., but I could not explain the VeriSM Value Proposition.

The more I read the more I heard things like the VeriSM Approach is Service Management for the Digital Age.  Ok, that meant absolutely nothing to me.  Now I am a marketing and sales person and that is for sure a great marketing catch phrase, but I didn’t know what it meant.  Is the world almost completely digital these days?  Yes.  Does every department in and organization have a digital footprint?  Sure, but so what?  What is the VeriSM Approach and why should the C Suite, every department in an organization, yes every department…HR, Sales, Customer Service…and IT, care?  Why should they all learn what the VeriSM Approach is?  Why should they adopt the VeriSM Approach?  And why don’t they understand that VeriSM is not a replacement for anything?  Not ITIL. Not DevOps.  Not Agile.  Not COBIT.  Not any of the ISO Standards.

The Answer

After much study, attending the VeriSM Foundation course and asking a ton of questions I finally understood why so many people do not understand VeriSM.  The reason that VeriSM is not understood is that VeriSM is more than we have ever dreamed of.  We need to think outside of the box to understand it.  It is a wrapper.  It sits outside the pieces of the puzzle.  It is what allows the puzzle to go together seamlessly.  It is not a framework. It is not a standard.  It is the icing that holds the whole cake together.  It is what enables all the ingredients to work together and to create the best cake ever.

When you Google the word Verism the definition that pops up says, “Verism is the artistic preference of contemporary everyday subject matter instead of the heroic or legendary in art and literature; it is a form of realism. The word comes from Latin verus (true).”  And then it all came together for me.  The VeriSM Approach is truth.  It is a form a realism.  It is practical.  It is inclusive.

So What Is VeriSM?

VeriSM takes the successful service management approach that is second nature in IT organizations and transmits the service first mindset throughout the entire organization.  The result is a flexible and agile organization designed to meet and exceed customer expectations.  Loyal customers.  Agile Employees.  Profitable business and Success.  With VeriSM organizations will digitally transform themselves and be able to deliver products and services that meet and exceed customer requirements.

The VeriSM Approach, when applied, will build your organization into a flexible and well-oiled machine ready to deliver products and services in a way that exceed customer requirements, strengthens your position in the market place and establishes a loyal customer base.  It embraces your entire organization and sets  you up for success.

Can You Afford to Ignore VeriSM?  Probably Not.

If you answer YES to 1 or more of these questions, then learning more about what VeriSM can do for you and your organization is the next step.

• Do you want to deliver a better product or service?
• Do you want to create loyal customers?
• Do you want to have a more profitable business
• Do you want to succeed?

Thank you for allowing me to share my VeriSM Journey with you.  I hope my journey will prove helpful to you and your organization. Let me know your thoughts.  I look forward to hearing from you!