Service Management's Missing Link - PART 3

This is the third of a 4-part series as we approach the January 26th Webinar: Service Management’s Missing Link at 1PM EST | 12PM CST | 11AM MSD | 10AM PST. GET YOUR TICKET HERE

In Part 1 we discussed how a universal approach to defining services helps the enterprise leverage any design technique while providing the structure people need to enhance the creative process.

In Part 2 we illustrated how the accelerated pace of business and human-centered aspects of design thinking leads to a need for an increased attention to overall governance.

In this post we’ll dig into what makes execution so difficult in today’s digital ecosystems, using the viable systems model to illustrate how multiple practice frameworks are increasing complexity.

If you have successfully clarified your vision, know your organization’s unique value proposition, and are prepared to leverage and align your activities then why do so many efforts at transformation fail?

What makes execution so difficult?

The Viable Systems Model describes the structure of an autonomous system that is capable of adjusting itself (and its performance) to changing requirements. A viable system can survive in a context that is continuously changing.

An important concept in a viable system is that variety accumulates in a system as it moves from 1 (operations) to 5 (governance).

What this means is that variety must be reduced at the lowest level, since it accumulates in the system.

Each USM system component can be standardized with a management system of 8 workflows.

[NOTE: For a detailed explanation of how USM supports variety reduction in a viable systems model, see the video How USM supports variety reduction?in the VSM.]

The complexity created by the desire to adopt and adapt multiple practice frameworks (just one has 34 different practice areas) is exacerbated by the lack of a standardized service management system.

Two decades of applying best practice frameworks while business and technology have continued to accelerate has resulted in a complexity that is unmanageable.

Our final post will outline how the Unified Service Management method addresses this challenge.