We’ve received a number of comments on a recent post, “Why Is Change So Difficult?“ Many of you commented that top management holds the key to overcoming resistance to change, yet company leaders sometimes don’t lead very effectively. Well, top management, here are some suggestions for overcoming resistance to change:

1. If you say “we need to change” and you don’t follow that up with a rationale, education, support, and guidance, you lose credibility with your employees. You have to lead, and not just with words. You have to show what change will look like, how it will come about, and give your people an honest, accurate cost-benefit analysis (i.e., it will take x, y, and z and may cause some short-term pain but we’ll be a stronger company in the long run).

2. Acknowledge employees’ stake in the outcome. If you think company owners are the only ones who have a stake in whether the company is successful and profitable, you’re looking at the situation too narrowly.

Your employees all have a crucial stake. If the company maintains the status quo and falls behind its competitors as a result, many employees may be out of a job. It’s in their best interest to see their company grow and change with the times.

Whether you know it or not, the majority of employees feel the company’s products are their products. Acknowledging this sense of pride in ownership will only reinforce their sense of worth and investment.

3. You value your employees’ insights. They’re involved from day to day in all the low- and mid-level processes. They see many things you don’t. Furthermore, you don’t have time to look for all the little details. Trust them to know what’s going on and invite their observations and criticisms.

4. At the same time, understand that your employees have different backgrounds and, therefore, different perspectives on your situation. They all have an interest in seeing the company change and improve, but how they read the company’s situation — and how they’d go about effecting change if they were in top management’s seat — will vary. Value the different viewpoints and use them to your advantage.

5. Understand the needs and requirements of the company at the different levels. Have you had a good talk with customer service, purchasing, or production lately? How do they see the company? What do they think the company needs to move forward? What do they need at their level to make change work?

6. You didn’t hire the best just to sit on their experience and talents, did you? You believe their personal and professional growth is in their best interests and yours, right? Well, why not make use of all that they have to offer? Show some trust in their knowledge and instincts…and in yours. It doesn’t make sense not to.

7. Everyone working together toward a common goal gives employees a sense of belonging and togetherness. “We’re in this together” isn’t just a slogan: it’s how exceptional organizations are run. It’s how companies like yours stay ahead of their competitors.

How does your company encourage change? How do you involve your employees in change? How do you get them to buy into the idea? I look forward to your comments.

What is it about us that makes change so hard to accept and even harder to manage? Where does resistance to change come from and what can we do about it?

“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.”
Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

Well, there is no ready solution (especially not in the space of this blog post). The word “change”, in whatever context, has always made people react with varying degrees of fear, frustration, and/or anger (or “FUD”). Yet, change goes on all around us, all the time. Much of change (the expanding waistline,  for instance) happens so slowly and subtly that we don’t notice it until well after it’s taken place.

Some change is thrust upon us. We hear around the office that “change is in the wind” and we feel threatened and anxious.  Let’s say your company has elected to implement a quality management system. Even if the current situation is not good — your customers are letting you know your product quality has slipped by walking away — many of us would still rather have the status quo.  Better the devil we know than the one we don’t…right? (“We just have to make our stuff better…that’s all.”)

The organization has to deal with resistance on a personal and an institutional level. Each is difficult to overcome and, like it or not, both must be dealt with.

Personal Resistance

If I say to you, “We’re going to change the way we do things around here”, what’s your reaction?  You have an emotional reaction, don’t you?  Probably a mixture of shock, anxiety, apprehension, and a few other gut feelings.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

You may feel unprepared. You may fear being left behind. Certainly, if you’re like most you don’t like the idea of leaving safe, familiar territory. (Besides, you haven’t done anything wrong.)

Experience may tell you to anticipate interpersonal conflicts in the course of change. It might also tell you to watch out for interoffice conflicts (power grabs, backstabbing…that kind of thing).

Institutional Resistance

Larger companies have a harder time with change, due to inertia (i.e., “It’s the way things have always been done around here”). With the current state of the world economy, there’s the question of where and how to expend your limited time and other resources, not to mention that as resources are harder to come by, the company’s focus narrows considerably. (“We need to increase sales now!“)

Then there’s that 800-pound gorilla in the room — office politics. Whenever — wherever — there is change, some stand to lose power and others, to gain and consolidate. People forget about what’s best for everyone and concentrate on self. “Office politics” is probably the single biggest obstacle to change. Let me amend that — office politics has a hand in change, but not the change we really need.

“Change is the only constant.“
Heraclitus, 535-475 BCE

Understand that resistance to change exists.  It may take unusually strong leadership — someone with uncommon vision and fortitude — to overcome individual and organizational resistance to change.

Make no mistake, though — change is a part of us. Are you taking an active role in change, or do you passively submit to it? Which of those will bring the kind of change you want and need?

Is change — or change management — a problem for your organization? If you were in charge, what would you do differently about the problem?

A disciplined project management process is important to any project.  Project managers are expected to deliver results, on time (if not sooner) and on budget.  Solid project planning reduces the risks associated with any project you take on.  Here are ten reasons why you need project management:

1. Control Scope Creep and Manage Change

Small changes in demands occur on every project.  They come from management, the customer, your project team, suppliers, or other stakeholders.  Individually, they may appear acceptable, but collectively these project demands can add up to a significant project expansion (referred to as “scope creep”) that can overrun your budget.  As a project manager, if you effectively manage the scope of your project, you have a better than even chance of effectively managing project resources — time, money, etc. — and managing change.

2. Deliver Project Results On Time and On Budget

Project planning starts with a well thought out business case justification that usually includes some type of cost calculation associated with Return On Investment (ROI).  Once these measures are established, it is up to the project manager to ensure that on-time, on-budget performance is maintained; otherwise, the project will never produce the expected results.  That’s what good project management is all about.

3. Focus the Project Team on the Solution

The project team can easily drift off topic and spend too much time on the wrong tasks.  A good project manager keeps the project team focused by using a clear and concise project charter, resolving barriers, or shielding the team from unnecessary interference.

4. Obtain Project Buy-In from Disparate Groups

As President Lincoln once said, “Public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” A good project manager uses the tools in the initiation phase of project management to collect user requirements, project constraints, and a feasibility study to build a strong business case justification.  Using input from various sources, the project manager overcomes dissent and obtains buy-in by communicating the project benefits as the different stakeholder groups see them.

5. Define the Critical Path to Optimally Complete your Project

Every project is made up of a series of connected activities, each of which has its own constraints.  The project manager identifies the critical path of activities — the optimal sequence of actions that best ensure the project’s successful completion.

6. Provide a Process for Estimating Project Resources, Time, and Costs

Using project management software, previous project experiences, and a solid project initiation phase can provide the discipline needed to reduce project estimating errors, increasing the likelihood that the project will finish on time and on budget.

7. Communicate Project Progress, Risks, and Changes

As a project progresses, stakeholders must be kept informed of the outcomes, changes, stumbling blocks, or successes that the project experiences.  Project management creates a project communication plan to address these communication issues, provide a format, and lay out a process for execution.

8. Surface and Explore Project Assumptions

All projects are based on assumptions to some extent.  A good project manager delves into user requirements, project constraints, and management expectations to understand what is said and what is not said.  Relying on too many unconfirmed assumptions can invalidate a project schedule or, worse, sink the project.

9. Prepare for Unexpected Project Issues

Every project runs into unforeseen issues, such as changes in market conditions, and is hit with random cause variability.  Experienced project managers plan for the unexpected by lining up alternative courses of action.

10. Document, Transfer, and Apply Lessons Learned from Your Projects

The last phase of project management focuses on “closing out” the project.  The project manager reviews how well each prior phase — project initiation, project planning, project execution, and project monitoring and control — was performed.  As part of good knowledge management, all project review notes should be dissected and analyzed for patterns, trends, and opportunities for improvement.  These “lessons learned” should be documented and communicated to other project managers before starting the next project.

The Top Ten Reasons Why You Need Project Management

1. Control scope creep and manage change;
2. Deliver project results on time and on budget;
3. Focus the project team on the solution;
4. Obtain project buy-in from disparate groups;
5. Define the critical path to optimally complete your project;
6. Provide a process for estimating project resources, time, and costs;
7. Communicate project progress, risks, and changes;
8. Surface and explore project assumptions;
9. Prepare for unexpected project issues; and
10. Document, transfer, and apply lessons learned from your projects.

There are seven common Quality Tools you can use to understand and improve processes during a process improvement event.   Each tool helps you identify sources of variation and aids in the analysis, documentation, and organization of the information, which leads to process improvement. 

1. Flowcharts, or Process Maps, visually represent relationships among the activities and tasks that make up a process.   They are typically used at the beginning of a process improvement event; you describe process events, timing, and frequencies at the highest level and work downward.  At high levels, process maps help you understand process complexity.  At lower levels, they help you analyze and improve the process.
2. Ishikawa, Fishbone, or Cause & Effect Diagrams visually represent the causes of a problem – or effect – and help you determine the ultimate source of the problem — the root cause.  (This tool is called a “fishbone” diagram because of its appearance; Ishikawa was its inventor.)   The cause-and-effect diagram is used at the beginning of root cause analysis, to organize the causes of a problem (people, methods, equipment, materials, measurement, and environment) and prioritize them.
3. Data Checklists, check sheets, or recording tables are matrices designed to assist in the tallying, recording, and analysis of test results or event occurrences.  They are utilized in production to count defects and collect process data, which you analyze to identify opportunities for improvement.
4. The Pareto chart is named after Vilfredo Pareto, who came up with the Pareto Principle (or the “80/20 rule”), which says that 20% of the factors account for 80% of potential problems.  The Pareto chart ranks defects, causes, or data from the most significant to the least significant, in descending order.  Pareto charts help you separate the “vital few” from the “trivial many”.  They are typically used during process improvement analysis, to understand where to focus improvement for the greatest impact.
5. Histograms consist of vertical bars, side-by-side, that depict frequency distributions within tables of numbers and can help you understand data relationships over time (e.g., the familiar “bell curve”).  Histograms are generally used during process improvement analysis.
6. Scatter charts display relationships between dependent (predicted) and independent (prediction) variables.  They are used during hypothesis testing, to determine if there is a correlation between two variables and how strong the correlation is.  Less scattering indicates stronger correlation.
7. The control chart is a type of statistical process control tool.  Process performance is plotted over time against upper and lower control limits; this helps you readily identify process variations and enables determination of special cause and common cause variation.  Control charts are used during production, or after process improvement implementations, to ensure that processes are within control limits, or “in control”.

To achieve the best results, start by (1) drawing up a process map, so you understand the process flow.  Next, (2) analyze the process flows for the primary causes of problems and develop your cause-effect diagram.  Then, (3) collect data using check sheets and (4) plot your data using a Pareto chart and/or (5) a histogram.  Next, (6) determine the relationship of various variables in your cause-effect chain using a scatter chart.  Once you have solved your problem, (7) use a control chart to ensure that the process is staying within process control limits — demonstrate process control.

The Seven Quality Tools

To summarize, using these seven quality tools:

1. Flowcharts or Process Maps;
2. Ishikawa, Fishbone, or Cause & Effect Diagrams;
3. Data Checklists, check sheets, or recording tables;
4. Pareto Charts;
5. Histograms;
6. Scatter plots; and
7. Control Charts (SPC)…

…especially in combination, will help you improve your processes and achieve your objectives.

Process improvement is occurring at many organizations throughout the world.  Yet people constantly ask about how to get started.  How do you get your organization moving in a direction of continuous improvement?

First off, you have to have Management Commitment.  The obvious question, then, is how does top management show commitment to change and improvement? The answer is about inspirational leadership, it is about communication.  To be an inspirational leader, one needs to be a great communicator.  Management commitment takes both leadership and communication.

Second, it takes SMART Objectives.  Planning by management must result in clearly defined objectives that the organization can work towards.

Third, in order to achieve the SMART objectives, the organization will require operational Action Plans with accountability and responsibility for each action.  This means the Who-What-When is spelled out for proper execution.

Fourth, you will need a User Focus.  Defined customer requirements, an understanding of the voice-of-the-customer — your customer, and a method of constantly integrating your customer’s requirements into your processes.

Fifth, there has to be Profound Knowledge, which results in your ability to anticipate results.  Really understanding your customer, your markets, and your processes lead you to anticipating what your customer needs next.  How do you reach this state?

Sixth, you will need to learn and implement Management By Fact, which will lead you to profound knowledge.  Collect the facts from data, use the data to derive information, and obtain knowledge about your customers, markets and processes.

Seventh, in order to manage by fact, you will need the facts in the form of Real-Time Data.  Your processes will require increased visibility and transparency.  Real time data is needed to build a strong competitive advantage.  The longer the delay in getting data, the slower your reaction time is and the less competitive you become.

Eighth, with so much going on you will need a good Change Management System that can document and control all of these changes.  This will build on your system of management by fact and lead you to greater profound knowledge.

Ninth, Execution Audits, internal audits or process audits.  Either way you will require a system of monitoring to ensure that the system is working, that your change management system is effective, and that you are in fact achieving progress towards your SMART objectives.

Tenth, still unsure of where to start?  Then Continuous Learning is needed to build your knowledge management.  No improvement will take place unless knowledge is identified, acquired, shared, and used.  Training, learning and practice are crucial to build competence.

What are these Performance Improvement Drivers?

1. Management Commitment (Leadership & Communication)
2. SMART Objectives (Goals)
3. Action Plans (Accountability, Who-What-When)
4. User Focus (Customer, Employee, Supplier)
5. Profound Knowledge (Anticipates Results)
6. Management By Fact (Data, Information Knowledge))
7. Real-Time Data (Visibility)
8. Change Management System (Documentation & Control)
9. Execution Audits (Monitoring)
10. Continuous Learning (Improvement)

The thing about IT systems is that people have to use them. No matter the on-time, on budget performance of the development, the success of your install will be judged on how you move the needle on the metrics that the system was designed to affect. And to move the needle, users have to use your system effectively.

Getting users to use it takes two things. It takes buy-in, which you no doubt facilitated by involving users early to define their requirements. It was at this stage that you investigated and communicated to users the underlying core process that would be automated by your system. You got on the same page with users at the very beginning that the right work is in fact being automated.

Getting people to use your system requires their buy-in from the start, and bite-sized, context-sensitive training and communications after your system launches. Copyright, Bizmanualz, Inc. © 2009.

The second thing that you need to get users to use the system is communications and training, aka: a roll-out. Roll-out is when you remind users that they defined the requirements in the first place, and at that time you all agreed that by automating the core process, their lives would be easier, and the enterprise would benefit through improved metrics.

Remember, your million-dollar technology investment is at risk if people don’t use it. Your IT development was certainly serious. So your roll-out needs to be serious too, not a Band-Aid slapped on to try and recover.

Deployment: Who needs to know what, and when do they need to know it?

A serious roll-out reflects your understanding of how your system will actually be used. Remember those use-cases? OK, dig those up and consult them when planning your training and communications.

Develop a training plan that is consistent with the use-cases that you captured when you gathered user requirements. Copyright, Bizmanualz, Inc. © 2009.

Develop training from the point of view of your users. Think about the context in which the information will be used. That is, deploy training in formats appropriate for the setting. For example, field-delivery workers will have their hands full, literally. They may not have the time to attend live training for extended periods. Instead, break up the information into bit-size nuggets, and deliver it digitally to their mobile devices in visual or video format.

Deliver training in bit-sized nuggets as it is needed. Use formats that work in the situation. Make it as easy as possible or people to know what they need to know to use your system effectively. Copyright, Bizmanualz, Inc. © 2009.

Close the loop by updating standards, policies and procedures.

Remember how, early on, you and your users got on the same page about the core processes that you would be affecting? Ultimately, you need to close the loop. You need to update company standards, policies and procedures to reflect any changes that you have made in the work flow, compliance or standard practices.

It’s too easy to focus on the project management metrics and forget that ultimately it’s the impact of automation that matters. Do users remember that they set the requirements? Do they know how to use the system to do their job? Are people making the connection of improving metrics back to the technology causing it? Take a good look at your roll-out plans, and make sure that you get payback for your technology investments.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Implementing changes in an organization can generate a range of emotions within your stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, etc.) that can create barriers to realizing your original change objectives.  Understanding why people are responding the way they are to your proposed changes will help you to roll-out your improvements more smoothly and allow you to obtain the buy-in from your stakeholders that will actually deliver the performance improvement your changes were designed to realize.

When you start to communicate change and improvement throughout your organization you will take your stakeholders through five phases or states of mind.  Each phase is a normal emotional state that most people go through.  Developing a communication plan to help guide your stakeholders through each phase, with prepared responses for each one, can ensure a successful roll-out for your changes and improvements.

What are these phases of change and how should you respond?

1. Anticipation.

Stakeholders are anxiously waiting for what is about to come. People may not know what to expect; rumors abound, and speculation increases.  Some may even be in denial of what is about to occur.

Introduce your strategy, present your concrete steps, and build awareness to overcome the speculation and reduce the resistance or denial factor.  Identify each stakeholder group and assess what information each group may need.

2. Confrontation.

Your stakeholders begin to see that change is really happening, improvement teams are forming, or new software features are being implemented.  But that does not mean they are happy about it.  In fact, they may be angry, frustrated, or downright resistant in an effort to fight your changes. 

Help stakeholders get through it.  Be firm and have responses to possible objections from each of your stakeholder groups.  Remind stakeholders of your strategy (the one you used to address their anticipation in phase 1).  You will need customized information tailored to each stakeholder group.  There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach here.  Each group has different interests, needs and objections.

3. Realization.

Once the change has been implemented, stakeholders will realize that nothing is ever going to be as it was before.  Some may reminisce, longing for the “old ways” of doing it.  Some groups may start negotiating alternatives to the changes seeking for a way out.  They may try and not use the changes or go back to the “old ways”.  Many will have questions about the changes and will want some answers.

Be prepared with various communication vehicles such as memos, newsletters, town-hall meetings, interviews, team meetings, coaching and training sessions.  Training is very important because changes introduce new concepts.  If you don’t offer enough information to overcome their resistance, you may prolong the next phase.

4. Depression.

Stakeholders may mourn the past. Intellectually, change is here, but emotionally, stakeholders don’t like it.  People see what they believe, which means that even if the changes are working, they may not “see” positive results. 

Address each stakeholder’s beliefs and give them time to work it through.  Develop monthly communications to reinforce the behavior change.  Keep an open door to answer lingering doubts.  Show everyone how well their efforts are working.  Communicate results and recognize successes.

5.  Acceptance.

Stakeholders are now accepting the changes. Although they may have reservations, they are not fighting the changes anymore. They should be seeing some of the benefits on their own, even if they are not completely convinced.  Some will love the changes and may wonder how they ever managed the “old” way.  Overall, they are starting to feel good about the changes and accept them as the new way of doing business.

You are not done.  You will need to reinforce your changes and improvements with some type of follow-up and review.  Use process audits, process reviews, and management reviews or solicit inputs from your stakeholders to obtain feedback and “lessons learned” that can be used to start a new cycle of improvement.  That’s right, at this point we are back to phase one, using feedback to anticipate stakeholders needs and make the next round of changes.

An understanding of these phases is critical for developing your communication plan. Your communication plan objectives should address each phase.

Change Phase Communication Objectives

1. Anticipation – introduce your strategy.
2. Confrontation – respond to objections.
3. Realization – provide training and support.
4. Depression – communicate monthly.
5. Acceptance – Review and obtain feedback.

Understanding why people are responding the way they are to your proposed change will help you to roll-out your improvements more successfully and obtain stakeholder-buy-in that will actually deliver the performance improvement your changes were designed to realize.

When dealing with your knowledge management communications, think about all of your changes and improvements as organizational “news”.  You have to get the word out and communicate the news so others can profit from the changes and improvements you’ve made.  Could you do this like a news show?

All of the communications activity must be planned and coordinated.  You would need a news staff to write, produce, and distribute your news materials.  Your news show could have a schedule with a regular time slot, format, and an editor or anchor for your program.  Perhaps you run feature stories regarding training events, Kaizen of the month, and progress on major changes or improvement objectives.  Be creative — have fun with it — make it engaging!  Produce videos, a newsletter, a change wall, or skits for the changes.

What’s your news program’s budget?  Major software changes in IT get money for new software and software customization, but considerably less time and money is allocated to effectively communicating these changes.  This may be due, in part, to the lack of a formal in-house communications program.  If you don’t have such a program, do you go with “what works for everybody else” (which really doesn’t), or do you try something different…like a news show?

Show Your Commitment to Change and Improvement

Identify a news staff whose job it is to get out the word on change and improvement.  Delivering change and improvement is like producing a show.  You have to budget for the production of the show (change and improvement development activities) and you then have to have the show on a regular basis, just like the news.  Change and improvement, like the news, isn’t a one-time event: it’s ongoing.

Your knowledge management program requires a serious commitment to change and improvement.  You can demonstrate your commitment by the time and money you budget to communication, as well as by the quality of the Change and Improvement Show you produce.  Seeing a high level of commitment from management, the rest of your organization is more likely to effect the changes and improvements your company needs to thrive.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

In ‘Top Ten Reasons’, we looked at why policies and procedures don’t work.  In this post, I’ll share a little about what we do when companies ask us to help improve their policies and procedures.

“Too long”, “unclear”, and “complicated” generally top the list of “Reasons Why Procedures Don’t Work”.  We often find that clients have complex flow charts, swim lane diagrams, and subway maps, usually with no clear starting or ending point or communications objective.  When workers look at these diagrams, they don’t know how to read them — they don’t know what the author is trying to tell them.

Get Organized, Then Consider Your Communications Objectives

While capturing everything you learned while studying your process may help you, you don’t need to show that around.  Think of your spaghetti diagram as homework, but think of your procedures as having a job to do. Your procedures are responsible for communicating know-how to someone who may have an alternate view of how a task should be done.

Think of your procedures as stories, with a beginning, middle, and end.  After discerning your intent, we look in our library for something we have composed already that tells a similar story. But our procedure communicates flow, or how raw materials, information and labor come together to create value for customers. By organizing the story around flow, we can simplify your procedures, not to mention the underlying processes. Flow should be a theme in all your procedures.

When we review a client’s procedures, we compare them to stories (e.g. procedures) that we have already written. We simplify client procedures so that they communicate flow. And we add measure and balance information at transition points to keep the underlying processes running smoothly.

Procedures Should Help Work Flow

Think of work flow as the current in your favorite fishing or boating stream.  When the stream moves at a “normal” pace, the water stays within its banks.  However, if a larger-than-normal volume comes downstream, or if the normal volume encounters an obstacle (like a bunch of fallen trees), the stream rises.  Soon, the stream has nowhere to go but out of its banks. What a mess.

To maintain work flow in your company, you need to know the measure and balance that should be maintained at each transition point in your process. For example, how much raw material should Receiving hand off to Production every hour?  Every day?  Such concrete measure and balance information determines the tempo of your processes. Workers need to know the appropriate tempo to prevent production managers from being inundated with material, and prevent inventory from backing up.

Procedures communicate flow.  And other kinds of documents and communications tools have other jobs. Thinking about and achieving all the communications jobs needed to roll out a process and keep it humming along is what we call “implementation”.

After Developing Your Procedures, You Have to Tell the Story

When we review a client’s procedures, we compare them to procedures, or stories, that we’ve already written. We simplify client procedures so they communicate flow.  And we add measure and balance information at transition points to keep the underlying processes running smoothly, at the appropriate tempo.

That may end up being a lot of information — more than you would want to write in text form as a procedure — so we deploy communication tools: maps, job aids, visual work boards, training, videos, etc.  These tools get the right information to the right people at the right time, so they can do their work at the right tempo and stay in sync.  Deploying communications tools in this way is how we achieve implementation.

I’ll cover implementation in a future blog post.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has been growing in popularity because of its universal suitability as a framework for managing information technology (IT) services, including the infrastructure, development, and operations of an IT department.

In its fullest implementation, ITIL is a perfect complement to – and is perfectly complemented by – Six Sigma and Lean to create more agile and higher quality IT operations.  Using Six Sigma techniques like the DMAIC process introduces a more structured engineering approach to ITIL’s framework.  Lean thinking promotes continuous improvement and waste reduction into ITIL’s best practices.

ITIL itself does not provide methods to identify and target waste, document value streams (as is usually done with Lean), or measure customer satisfaction.  Nor is ITIL itself a transformation method used for change management.  But ITIL does provide the vocabulary and framework we think of as the process approach advocated by Deming, which is where all process improvements start.

Implementing an ITIL framework is an excellent starting point for IT organizations looking to evolve toward a more process-oriented state.  Six Sigma and Lean can be added to the ITIL framework to help your IT organization achieve continuous improvement and organizational agility.