Pink President's Blog

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Are You An ITSM Leader Or An ITIL Redneck?

Yesterday I was working on a presentation titled “ITSM Leadership: You Don’t Need To Be In Charge To Get Results”. One of the related themes I want to get across is that we need to get away from the mantra “Implement ITIL” (specifically implementing ITIL holistically). We should think about the specific needs we have and the opportunities ITIL provides us to meet those needs.

Change in our ITSM operations should be driven by an end result that adds value to the business (usually cost savings or revenue increases), not change because we’ve learned something new, or worse still just because it’s in the ITIL book. Too often I hear consultants as well as practitioners talk about what should be done because the book says so, rather than what needs to be done because it makes sense.

To lighten this up a bit, on my drive into Pink HQ this morning I heard a clip on the radio of Jeff Foxworthy doing some of his “.... you just might be a redneck” routine and it got me thinking. If you’re unfamiliar with Mr Foxworthy’s jokes, here’s a couple of examples:

If you’ve been married three times,
and you still have the same in-laws,
you just might be a redneck.

If your home doesn’t have curtains,
but your truck does,
you just might be a redneck.

I couldn’t help chuckling to myself as I thought about “ITIL rednecks”:

If you begin answering questions with phrases like,
“ITIL says ....” or “It depends ...”
you just might be an ITIL redneck.

or,

When your definition of an “Incident”,
wins the day in an argument with a co-worker,
you both just might be ITIL rednecks.

Please, show some ITSM leadership and do what’s right and makes sense for your business. Don’t just do what ITIL says!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Interviews With Speakers At The 16th Annual Conference

Last year, and now this year, Samad Aidane the Managing Editor at GuerrillaProjectManagement.com conducted a series of short 15-20 minute interviews with some of the speakers at the upcoming ITSM Conference. This is a really convenient way for you to get a little insight into their subject matter. Should help when you’re trying to figure out which of the 12-17 concurrent sessions we have going in each time slot!

How to conquer information overwhelm - a conversation with Dr. Joanne Cantor author of: Conquer CyberOverload http://bit.ly/y96zK1#pink12

Why Lean IT matters-Interview with Steve Bell author Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation http://bit.ly/wgZrVz#pink12

LOE Index: a Tool for measuring individual response to organizational change -Interview with Dr. Victoria Grady http://bit.ly/yasGqQ #pink12

How IT can deliver new business value every 12 weeks–Adobe Systems Case Study. Interview with Paulette Scheffer http://bit.ly/xo14zx#pink12

Social Media For Project Managers –A Conversation with Elizabeth Harrin (@pm4girls) http://bit.ly/xP5ftu #pmot #Pink12

Why Industrial Psychology matters to Project Managers – A conversation with Bernardo Tirado (@thePMObox) http://bit.ly/xbPf6W #pmot #Pink12

Why team building is not an event-An interview with Kirk Weisler(@kirkweisler) on team building for PMs http://bit.ly/zhBeyO #pink12 #pmot

Doug Moran(@IfYouWillLead), bestselling author of “If You Lead”, on what it takes to excel as a leader http://bit.ly/vZaAnz #pink12 #pmot

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

My Top 12 Tips For Developing Good Conference Presentations.

The past few weeks I’ve had my head down working on programs for Pink events later this year (and even for 2013!) - as well as reviewing some of the presentations we have lined up for PINK12 (the 16th Annual ITSM Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas next month.

I was even cheeky enough to give some “constructive feedback” to our Pinker speakers for PINK12. That made me think it might be a good idea to publish some of my opinions on what I think makes a good conference presentation. What you’ll see in the attached file is some advice that I’m sure you’d also get from many other people in the conference business - but I’ve also included one or two pet peeves of mine. Please try to avoid those if you see me in your audience!

Anyway, I’m publishing my tips here in PowerPoint format - so it’s easy for you to scroll through in slideshow mode. If you have additional tips you’d like to pass on, please put them in a Comment right here.

My_Top_Twelve_Tips_For_Developing_Good_Conference_Presentations.ppt