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RE: We need to talk about ITIL

tobeaman 26th Jan

@jeff.hasenau_z:

You wrote, " I can not think of many trainings that you can take and never have to perform any follow through."

While that may be true, it is incumbent upon the trainer to *motivate* the students to implement what they are learning. Good training is not just an info-dump, it also includes "selling" the students on why internalizing the information, and implementing what they're being taught will help make them more successful, and make their life better in the long run. (And, really, if neither of these are true, then why bother in the first place?)

That being said, I believe it's also incumbent upon the sponsor to ensure that their model/standard/etc. is being taught by qualified trainers in an effective manner. If you have a product that is extremely intuitive and very easy to understand, then you can get away with not having a focus on training. Otherwise, however, training is everything. Even a surgeon will be lost if his training is inadequate.

So perhaps the ITIL folks need to go back and assess their marketing/training plan. Adults usually don't put forth extra effort for no good reason for free. If the ITIL information is just not very accessible (as I find is true for many models these days--which leads not only to poor adoption rates, but also to confusion among those who do take the plunge), and the requirements for ITIL certs are high (many contracts have stipulations regarding ITIL quals/certs), then you are going to continue getting what you have now: a bunch of people who learned how to pass the exam but were never properly educated and/or motivated to put the model to work for them.

Again, there are those who would place this blame squarely on the trainers, but, honestly, it's not the trainers' product. If the ITIL sponsors want to make sure people are implementing the practices, then they must/MUST become actively involved in developing and delivering motivational education for practitioners.

Someone has to show people where the rubber meets the road. Break it down for us, show us why we should be excited to have this new understanding and and this view of IT services. Show us how this will help us make more money, get and keep more clients, build a product or deliver a service we can be seriously proud of, and still be able to leave the office at a decent time. Surgeons--to use your example again--can see all of the above, and that's a big part of why they decided to become a doctor: they always knew and internalized the cost/benefit in a very personal and exciting way. (I will slug my way through 12-15 years of long days and sleepless nights at med school, because by the time I'm 35-40 I'll build a fat bank account, buy a Mercedes, live in a nice house, go on nice vacations, and--most importantly--I'll be able work on people and make them better, save their lives, and sometimes even be the hero--how cool is that??)

If you're not showing me how ITIL makes my life way better, then I'm not interested. And, apparently, neither is anyone else.