Don’t think outside the box, look inside a different box!

Ian MacDonald explains the benefits for those in ITSM of the ‘analogous overlap’ with other industries.

A challenge with Continual Improvement is when your ability to deliver business value from further improvement hits a mental block. Circumstances include:

• ‘Writers block’. You have exhausted ideas and can’t think of anything else.
• Diminishing returns. Further effort outweighs any expected benefits.
• Complacency. You feel you’ve done more than enough.

To unlock this blockage the often-used retort is that you need to be creative and ‘think outside the box’ to seek new ideas.

Stuck ‘inside the (IT) box’

Easier said than done. Creative and innovative thinking is often difficult when siloed in the well-established ways of working across your IT organisation. Seeking new insights from IT best practice is an option for some, but if you already apply best practice what else can you do? Some hope by engaging with perceived exemplar IT organisations they’ll find the ‘golden nugget’ but often this comparison draws a blank as service delivery approaches and challenges are typically similar.

Look ‘inside a different box’

Remember, no one has a monopoly on good ideas. Instead of the IT industry being your only reference point consider looking for new insights and ideas from organisations that operate in completely different industries. A growing number of companies are now realising that, in business, comparing ‘chalk with cheese’ is not just an interesting endeavour but a productive one when your creative thinking hits that mental block.

Comparing chalk with cheese?

Realistically, though, how can looking towards different organisations in different industries with different knowledge pools become a potential source of a step change in thinking applicable for your organisation? The answer is to find what is referred to as the ‘analogous overlap’. This is where two organisations in very different industries share some comparable common ground in terms of business-critical activities or challenges. These comparable overlaps are where the opportunity exists to glean potentially new insights, ideas, and knowledge that could be transferred into your IT organisation.  

These examples demonstrate the benefits of this approach:

The Premier League has recognised the need for more structured and formal dialogue between on-field referees and off-field Video Assistant Referees (VAR). The need for precision of language followed the release of audio when VARs attempt to overrule a wrong on-field decision failed due to the decision not being communicated in a clear and coherent manner. Aviation pilots, particularly in pressure situations, have well-established communication protocols to ensure absolute clarity. The Premier League are now engaging with British Airways pilots to develop communication protocols to be followed between game officials.

NASA explores creative possibilities for addressing the agency’s needs through prizes, challenges, and crowdsourcing opportunities. This helps advance space technology solutions by enhancing their aerospace expertise with ingenuity gained from other industries and academia. As a result of a crowdsourcing competition, NASA was able to extend the life of the space station and save hundreds of millions of dollars with many ideas coming from engineers in the petrochemical industry.

Reducing refuelling times was key to budget carrier Southwest Airlines. Quite simply, the longer an aircraft is on the tarmac the higher the airport charges. Whilst their refuelling times benchmarked favourably, they wanted to reduce further. Having exhausted ideas, they reached out to an F1 racing team to gain insights from the ‘pit stop’ (when this included refuelling). They subsequently applied this learning to drive process and technology change that reduced refuelling time from 40 mins to 12 mins.

Analogous overlaps with IT

It can work for IT too. See how an organisation ‘thought differently’ by not looking to ITIL but another industry to improve Problem Management (PM).

An independent review concluded that PM was not a priority, with significant cultural indifference towards its importance. The aviation industry was recommended as an exemplar reference for ‘what does good look like?’  A pragmatic approach was to facilitate workshops based on observing episodes of the docudrama Air Crash Investigation to define a desired target culture state. A change programme was instigated based on key learnings from aviation. This included reward and recognition switching focus from resolving incidents to preventing incidents through problem management.

Other examples

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to apply different thinking from a range of non-IT industries where new insight was needed. Examples include:

Finding the overlap

A suggested high-level approach to finding the overlap is as follows:

1. Confirm area(s) where fresh ideas for improvement are required.
2. Identify industries where an overlap exists. A suggested approach is to facilitate an ideas gathering session with stakeholders; seek input from research organisations (if you subscribe); leverage the wider industry perspectives of key vendors/suppliers for recommendations; and exercise your personal network for suggestions.
3. From the above identify a small number of target organisations.
4. Research target organisations to confirm a good match: access company websites; read relevant journals and publications; watch relevant TV and video materials; and review any testimonials received from stakeholders, vendors etc.
5. Typically formal engagement is required. Can vendors or suppliers broker a reference site visit? Can senior executives identify a contact through their personal network? Failing that, look up ‘Contact us’ on their website and make a formal request.

Reflection

No one has a monopoly on good ideas. When your creative thinking hits a blockage, don’t try and think outside the box but look inside a different box! Across differing industries there are often many overlaps that can provide a different source of insight, ideas and knowledge that can unlock your potential to improve further. The light bulb moment here is to recognise that what is best practice across the IT industry is not necessarily a reference point for absolute best.