Welcome to another engaging episode of the Humanising IT™ Podcast with Katrina Macdermid and Wesley Eugene. In this episode, Katrina and Wesley explore the complexities of IT service management, questioning the effectiveness of traditional maturity assessments. They discuss how these models often miss the mark by overlooking essential elements like culture, user experience, and real-world impact.   Drawing on Katrina’s consulting expertise and Wesley’s experience as a CIO, they debate whether ITSM should evolve into a broader enterprise service management approach. The conversation takes a bold turn when they confront the provocative question:

“Should we take the IT out of IT Service Management?”   Whether you’re an IT professional or business leader, this episode will challenge you to look beyond processes and frameworks to discover the human side of IT.

Join Katrina Macdermid and Wesley Eugene on the first episode of the Humanising IT™ podcast with special guest David Ratcliffe, president of Pink Elephant. They delve into ITSM complexities, discussing how human-centered design can revolutionise the field.

Key topics include insights from Katrina’s book, “Human-Centered Design for IT Service Management,” and the evolution of ITSM from a process-driven framework to a human-focused approach. David shares his experiences and introduces Pink Elephant’s new Integrated ITSM model, which combines traditional ITSM with agile, lean, and organisational change management practices.

Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion that challenges conventional ITSM practices and advocates for a more humanised, experience-led approach to IT service delivery.

Don’t miss the premiere of the Humanising IT™ podcast!

In this world exclusive masterclass with Akshay Anand, hosted by Brad Busch we focus on ITIL 4’s guiding principles.

Akshay was the Product Ambassador of ITIL 4, a former ITIL Global Ambassador and now a Principle Solutions Architect at Atlassian. I am privileged to have Akshay as our first guest.

Brad is a CISO with extensive experience at the management and board level in Cyber Security, DevOps, Digital & Cloud transformation.  I am honoured to have both of these wonderful people as part of my Humanising IT™ Masterclass series.

This Masterclass provides an unpreceded opportunity to learn from one of the most knowledgeable and influential people within the ITIL 4 architect team.  In this inaugural class, Akshay shares his world exclusive insights on missing and crucial components from each guiding principle. 

Akshay also shares his view that many people underestimate the power of the guiding principles, his opinion is that people come away from an ITIL training course with only a “surface” understanding:

In this 2nd episode Chris Barrett: Transformation Specialist,  Board Advisor and Educationalist with Barry Anderson: Senior Communications Strategist share their experience in managing complex Transformation Programmes. This unique series offers insights and most importantly, advice to all professionals when faced with a “no win” situation the why of when the walk away moment should apply.

In this podcast, we have 2 special guests:  Barry Anderson:   Transformation Strategist and Expert & Chris Barrett: Transformation Specialist, Board Advisor & Educationalist.

With Barry & Chris, we explore the challenges of running Transformations and further discuss why we simply just don't walk away when presented with not so uncommon scenarios, or as we have called them “Moments”.

In this first episode we focus on the Top 3 Moments:

 

1.I don’t understand what value a PMO adds, can’t the project managers deliver this without admin assistance?

 

2. We’ll use our [operational] people to deliver this project (who inevitably have operational day jobs too).

 

3. We need to do the same with less.  So we have the same programme scope and timescale that we agreed, but the budget is 20% less.

 

Chris & Barry both global and respected Transformational  leaders, not only wanted to share their experience and knowledge from their stellar and successful careers.  More importantly, they wanted to provide guidance and caution to professionals of accepting situations (or moments) that are doomed for failure; ultimately impacting their confidence and very often their professional reputation.

 

Walk away!

 

A must listen.

How did a police officer end up being in charge of an IT organisation?

In this episode we speak to Superintendent Martin Hayston, Director, Client Services and Engagement for the NSW Police Force.

 We learn not only about how IT has transformed policing from fingerprinting to writing parking tickets; we also hear amazing insights about Superintended Hayston professional & personal thoughts to policing.

 Without a doubt, this would have to be one of the most intriguing interviews we have conducted.

Do you know that 10% of people entering hospital can expect to suffer an adverse event? And of those, another 10% would die or experience a serious disability.

In this episode, we speak to Professor Michael Buist, an intensive care specialist, who has emerged as a world leader in the push to improve patient care with a range of thought provoking ideas to, not only address the issue of human error but the culture that exists in the healthcare industry with the use of technology.

 

To find out more about Professor Michael Buist, please use the link below:

If you think that the world of IT service management is something that is not easy to explain, then you would resonate with our guest in this podcast. In this episode, we speak to our special guest, David Ratcliffe, co-founder and president of Pink Elephant.

David shares some wonderful stories about his father, how he started his career in the IT industry, the highs and lows of his journey that led him to co-found Pink Elephant, and also what he thinks customer experience really is in the world of IT service management.

To find out more about David Ratcliffe, please use the link below:

Welcome to Katrina Talks Humanising IT, a podcast that promotes the critical role Informational Technology plays in our world today.

A shout-out to all IT professionals and specialists from all walks of life: Your journey to becoming an effective IT professional with better understanding of your clients begins right here.

Together, we bring you episodes of exclusive interviews with IT leaders behind some of the largest and reputable organisations. We have them share their inspirational leadership stories and winding pathways to their professional success.

Stay tuned for more fascinating insights on IT leadership, customer service, and top insider knowledge that you won’t find anywhere else but here in this podcast.

Think about the focus needed to get on that fast-moving T-Bar under the butts of skiers ranging from clumsy amateurs to world class skiers – that laser focus on the customer is exactly what Marco Bill Peter Senior Vice President - Customer Experience and Operations at Red Hat demonstrates in Episode 1 of Katrina Talks Humanising IT podcast

This episode showcases the human dimension of all of us who “work in IT”, to promote and elevate the critical role played by IT.

Marco shares with us the importance of customer experience and we learn about his passion for his people, his products and his company.

Red Hat operates in an open code environment - customers can use without paying, so without that absolute focus on customer experience, there is no Red Hat.

 

Key Insights

 

Even when it seems the right outcome for the customer is contra to company policy, proceed anyway. It is possible the policy is wrong or just misunderstood. This was exactly the situation in an example given by Marco when the response (from the policy architect) “What you did is what we want. We want to tinker and learn”. This was the right thing and turned Red Hat from a ‘Start Up’ to an Enterprise Company.

 

One of the questions during the interview was “What is your dream job?”  Marco didn’t respond with a somewhat typical response; travel the world, live on a deserted island, chocolate tester etc.   Marco’s dream job was to be a T-Bar operator for a ski season (he loves the snow).  Marco could have responded very differently based on his love of snow; design chair lifts or even be a tester for snowboards. 

Marco’s dream job is to help and support people so they can have a great experience.  To me, that is a trait of a true leader.