Thus marks the end of an era of being as (Green, ITIL v3, SarBox Compliant) as they say they are... Consumers of IT Process are getting wise to "IT-speak", no longer able to hide behind our own complexity, organization, or acronyms. Consumers of IT have gotten wise to ask "what exactly is IN this secret sauce" and what's it done for me lately?

Folks are refusing to be hyponotized by buzz logic. If you are going to claim it's "greener", be ready for them to ask why?

If you are going to claim your ITIL compliance and best practices, be ready to show what they are doing for them?

"Secret Sauce" has become highly skeptical in a world full of dietary allergies from artificial fillers and sweeteners that fill the bottle, extend the shelf life, but perhaps without the real customer value that might be expected.

Okay so you are going from 3K to 30 servers. Great we have saved x megawatts of energy, but if we really extend that out over the duration of our relationship, what has the absence of that logic cost us in efficiency? Win Win Win business is alive and well-- it is being delivered and received with great anticipation. What else could we create with this uncommon approach to partnership?

We have immense capabilities, challenging ourselves to learn, to grow, and to experience is a perfect way to stay sharp, to grow our skills and to continue delivering value... Optimism and creativity is 'in', in winning business value!

What has changed from ITIL Version 3, in your service strategy? If the difference is 'New Improved Version 3' replacing their 'classic' expectations, perhaps some more work needs to be done. For 'NEW' to have sizzle, it must also be improved.

Simplifying IT Process: Improving IT Value. A truly visionary change agent is introspective enough to question assumption to build a better business system.

Somewhere along the legacy of IT, we got off balance-- we embraced our complexity and ability to function in such a higher demand that we came to believe that our VALUE was in our indiscernable processes. You can't get rid of me, if you don't understand me-- whether you like me or not, you still need me.

What's your difference between working 'inspired' or out of 'dutiful habit'? Get interested in life again.
How long has it been since you were fully 'in' to what you do?

'Controlling' success is not about never making mistakes, or knowing how to hide them, it is about recognizing where you are, what distractions exists, and how we can navigate them to get to the better more desirable place. By contrast it requires being positive enough to see the good and the possible, realistic enough to see the opportunities and the distractions.

I have heard it said, 'The person you will be 30 days from now depends upon the books you read, the people you associate with, and the thoughts you think.' Great Change Agents recognize the importance of clarity on articulating the work to be done, how to get organized to accomplish it, and who needs to be involved in getting it done. These are the possibility people that are concerned about creating a favorable outcome, and helpful in providing solutions alone or part of a larger group.

"GE" coined the famed 'workout process' which provides tools for communication strategy that fit nicely into the Sigma Process-- many other companies call this "CAP" - Change Acceleration Process or Change Acceptance Process.

Kitta Reed's book "The Zen or Proposal Writing", creates the strong case for considering the naysayers as part of the fabric of your process improvements. She takes this strategy to a new height, suggesting we are actually "relishing rejection, and savoring acceptance". Like most of our trade, this is a practiced art.

The link takes you to the top 10.. Karl D. Williams ran a great article in iSixSigma.com called the Top 10 Program Mistakes Software Green Belts in Training Make . His process influences were steeped in traditional experience including CMM, CMMI, and a Master Six Sigma Black Belt and has performed over 160 customized assessments at over 100 organizations in 19 countries.

In this blog, I will explore those favorite lessons that I experienced on my road to Green Belt and establishing working ITIL best practices.. Not the kind you checked a 'done' box with, but the kind you use to move business decisions with!

The successes are possible by starting where you are and setting the framework to baseline, improve, and continue. Success is possible whether your model is cost center or profit center, if you keep the financial elements in mind. ITIL has way less to do with whether you outsource or not, whether you blended source or not, it IS about the recognition that for as long as there are services, applications, hardware, and software elements, there will be process and performance requirements for keeping them up.

Probably little surprise that
ITIL Version 3 is moving towards 'Service Management' and moving the required IT core competencies up a notch to managing a service live cycle. This is different than understanding volumes and volumes of complexity, and more about integrating and delivering the complexity with simplicity and agility. This requires more corporate level accountability to requirements, costs, and managed capabilities.

Ecologically speaking, Information Technology trending is about more green than just funding. Virtual IT Trending can save a whole lot more than money.

In your industry:

* How are you seeing IT prioritization for the risks of compliance, and at what level are they assessed?
* What is your best practices for integrating Service Management with Compliance?

WHATs ITIL: It is a mechanism for differentiating roles and responsibilities and a common language for how to Deliver Products for Service and Support, and how to Deliver Services for managing value for investment in people, process, and technology.

I have learned much about my approach to career development from Leslie Lambert. Go Leslie, Go! Ever onward, ever optimistic, ever willing to make the big changes! Thanks for the lessons on the path...

Happy April Fools! Send me other great spoofs you find!

Are you in Colorado this week? I am visiting and working a few days in Broomfield Building 2, stop by and say hello! I DO miss being in a place where "everybody knows your name", and certainly I felt that friendly camaraderie in Colorado. Perhaps that is why, despite the time away from my precious kids, I am looking forward to this visit.

Today is my birthday, and I hear 40 is a big one. Somehow I spent my 30's in deep ponderance on what I can do to get ahead of the worry of what I can do to fulfill my life responsibilities.

As 40 is supposed to be meaningful, I choose to make it so, not just accept the rumor of expected behaviour. I intend to renew my commmit to a life fully lived, fully engaged, and fully inspirational.

It is not hard to turn 40. It is hard to lose the extra weight I put on thinking I was too busy to take care of myself. It is hard to retrain my type A personality to be as serious about balance. I know my genes, and I get this honest, but to use the best parts of my creativity to benefit my employer, my family, myself, and those I get to live around... well that must be about as close to centered as one can get.

This week I reflected on what it takes to be one of the Best Places to Work in IT. ComputerWorld does this annually, and as part of my style, I study the attributes of what makes a company "best". The answers differ depending on your point of view, but the "best" companies are "best" at staying in touch with the talent they have, the problems they need solved, and the opportunities that must have innovation to solve them. "Solve" means not to complete a project, but to contiually deliver a product with the right resource, time, and output that the customer requires. What happens in the environment comes from being "best" regardless of the view.

I choose Sun IT as one of the Best Places to work for it's innovation and dedication to introspective action. , leadership, drive, and flexibility. I choose Sun as a best place to work in IT because I truly believe if there was a better place, I would be there now. I choose my environment and my partnerships and Sun has the best mix of compensation, recognition, challenge, vision, and balance for a person like me, for a group, like I happen to work with, and for the world of diversity that I have come to enjoy as a benefit of being part of someething way larger than office cubicle work!

Hey the coolest Linked In widget YET was introduced to me yesterday. Hey and Mark Dixon.. Mr Identity, wondering what you think of this? Check out the widget that is LinkedInABox.com a way cool portable profile using your Linked In profiling, and your choices of "skin" and Graphics Backdrop. Neat huh!

And I will have the warmth of this keyboard.. while the powers on... I am saying that if I disappear for a few hours from email for the next few days while this storm has us socked in.. fear not, I will be back on the job as soon as I am feeling the power.. and warmth of this nice toasty keyboard.

Deborah Gilburg wrote a Generation X opinion piece on how t6o leverage the mind share of retiring Baby Boomers to advance your career. In my quest for truth and reality, I found this piece very intriguing. We are doing all kinds of things to forecast the future, but truly 77.5 Million retirees leaving the workplace in the next 5 years is likely to be a tangible issue affecting our workforce. Thus the questions, what can and should we be promoting in our cultures to make ourselves more change ready and capable than change impacted and paralyzed? To those NOT retiring, this has everything to do with you and the corporate executive workforce.

Qualities of Great Managers, A tribute in honor of one of my favorite managers of all time, Rob Ghielen.

This was a week full of heart warming stories. From Sun's return to profitability, the Chicago Bears making history, and then when I heard of BB King hospitalization today at age 81, I decided it was time to honor the man and the music that is part of the tapestry of my life!

I love Sonic! Not just it's food, its philosophy.
Simplified Service Management means creating a better experience by creating a better service package. Imagine if you went to a Sonic to order a Toaster Sandwich, Chocolate Coke, and a side of tator tots, and each part of the order was taken by a different person focussed only on what they made-- Toaster Sandwich from the grill gal, Tator Tots from the Fry Guy, and can I add a Chocolate Coke? Yes but we need to dispatch our Drink Dude, it will cost more, but we can't tell you how much more, he will be with you in a moment.

Sonic has figured out the requirements to offer one meal with all utensils, packaging, condiments, and add ons for one simple price from it's organiztion. It requires service management operations that can define and deliver their jobs with the same well architected experience.

Service management maturity begins with the notion that EVERYTHING costs something. Thinking in terms of the estimated cost, risk, and benefit is a practical start. Change Management works with Financial and Service Management because CHANGE costs money and directly impacts or influence customer experience. EVERY product, EVERY service as a life cycle of inception through maintenance until End of Life Cycle. Change Management is about creating a minimal impact from one state change to the next, and providing the balance of need and impact. So the Financial and Service Management component for Change Management would be how to provide stewardship for the IT Infrastructure with adequate funding, resources, and planning to minimize risk.

Growing up in the midwest, we had a beautiful Saint Bernard, Oscar-- great for romping in the snow, pulling us on sleds, and even playing basketball, but when he got into the house, and the living room, all kind of chaos would happen!

During my tenure in IT I have come to equate many of the dynamic skills and pressures of our IT talent to the Oscar in the living room, that is learning to be domesticated! We have come a long way, baby, but will you trust us with the fine china yet?

Some thoughts on IT coming to recognize it's grander self. Sounds like ITIL version 3 intends to look at this as well.. Strategy and Service Improvement hold alot of possibility to an introspective organization with good management intent and internal process!