The past year has been tumultuous and unexpected to say the least. Over a year on from the start of a pandemic that few ever expected, the world has certainly changed. Many people are now working from home. This was expected to be a temporary measure, but in some instances, people have been working from home for nearly a year. It would be fair to say that this is the new normal, where commutes now involve walking to a computer, and work social events are conducted via video conferencing.
This brings us onto ITIL® 4;: Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) and how it can be used to help you in the new normal. The components of CDS are flexible and adaptable enough to be applied to any situation, such as surviving prolonged periods at home.
Relationship management
CDS explores the importance of relationship management, where a service manager acts as a point of contact and liaison between the various stakeholders. For those living with others, prolonged periods of contact in confined spaces can cause tempers to fray and arguments to erupt.
In these situations, it might help to nominate an impartial referee to settle any arguments. If that isn’t possible, remember another CDS principle about communication: good communication is vital and can use various types of media.
So, to avoid an argument, go to separate parts of your home. Any tension can be resolved later when both parties are less angry. Or, if you don’t think that a face-to-face argument is a good idea, conduct your argument via a messaging app, or with paper airplanes. CDS encourages the use of verbal and written communication, whatever works best.
Team culture
Effective communication and relationship management form part of the team culture. For a team to be successful there must be a cultural fit, where the team’s culture complements the persons. This applies to those who live together. If you are too different, it can cause problems.
For example, if one person is very tidy and another messy, this will eventually lead to resentment and arguments. However, these differences can be reconciled through social activities, such as board games, quizzes, or movie marathons. Each person also needs to remember that they are part of one household (or team) and need to take responsibility to maintaining an effective environment. In other words, chores must be shared out equally!
Value streams
Many household chores can also be viewed as value streams. For example, the buying, preparing, cooking, and cleaning involved in meals is a series of steps taken to deliver value, which in this instance is food.
CDS can be applied to the meal preparation value stream by adopting value stream optimizing suggestions, such as eliminating work that does not create meaningful outcomes. So, if you include kale in your shopping list despite knowing that you won’t use or eat it, stop. Also utilize time saving devices. This could be a robotic vacuum cleaner that cleans as you work, fulfilling two actions at the once.
Value stream outputs can also include information, which can be shared with other stakeholders to aid in ongoing management. So, after a meal, the other stakeholders can provide their opinion and evaluate the process from start to finish. The cook can then decide if they will cook that meal again or if they can improve the efficiency of the value stream. For example, by completing some of the washing up as the meal is cooking. This can also be added as an additional step in the value chain.
The components of CDS can be applied to any situation, including the new normal. This can be a great opportunity to practice applying CDS, before the world (hopefully) goes back to the old normal.
Source: Axelos by Solmaz Purser - Project Editor, AXELOS
