Ignore the socks comment, this is another piece of initial trivia, but this episode features our amazing guest Claire Agutter, who explains SIAM clearly to us and also discusses some of the findings and learnings from the Annual SIAM report, which she produces with Scopism. Claire has great insight and experience in training, and development of IP in the ITSM world and we discuss how SIAM makes sense in a multi-vendor environment, and also beyond IT.

Our guest this week is David Barrow, an experienced service Industry practitioner and consultant, and the author of a new book on co-creating value with ITIL 4. Whilst not directly discussing ITIL, we explore co-creation by co-creating the podcast discussion on different approaches to value, the value of the guiding principles, plus also how we can develop communities to focus on specific requirements for co-creation. There is also now a real challenge on who can ask the longest question on the podcast… it doesn’t matter but we d still end up in the bar…

This week we review the podcasts that we’ve produced over the last year – a diverse and fascinating variety of topics, as well as a brilliant spectrum of guests. We begin with a ‘poem’ about the podcast, created by an AI bot – fascinating and impressive content, if not a poem… We differ a little on the current level of practicality around XLAs – surely an ongoing topic for 2023. We both have our own little rants.. Mostly we reflect on some of the fantastic guests and conversations that have contributed to the podcast over 2022. This will continue and further develop in 2023 - we look forward to that. Cheers and Happy New Year!

Our guest is the debonair Duncan Watkins, from Forrester Consulting – Duncan is a well-known and respected member of the UK and global ITSM community. The discussion focuses on comparing current approaches to employee experience and customer/user experience. We discuss similarities and differences, with a focus on what organisations are trying to do – not just the hype. Duncan mentions a ‘spectrum of experience’ – a useful reflection. How do we avoid XLAs falling into the same traps as SLAs – maybe product management as a direction – certainly understanding different types of business… It’s a great discussion and a valuable debate on a highly current topic.

An excellent, enlightening, and exhilarating episode – with our guest Simon Wardley, of Wardley Maps fame..! Simon defines and discusses the challenges that led him to mapping and how this can really help decision-making by providing context and changing relationships as well as the fixed points that are usually shown on graphs. We discuss doctrine tables, principles, and how most maps are not really maps. We also discuss the people side and warning flags about the ‘re-org’ culture that bedevils most organisations on a permanent basis – good advice is to sort out principles first. Our principles take us regularly to the bar and we also discover Simon’s preferred tipple for (dis) ‘orientation…’

Our guest this week is Karen Brusch, experience Service Designer in the financial Service industry, as well as a long standing itSMF contributor, currently chair of itSMF UK. With the annual itSMF UK conference coming up on 14thNovember, this is a timely discussion. We discuss the challenges of service design, how to create the ‘swan’ experience (smooth and seamless), plus what is needed under water to make it all happen. We also cover the impact of different approaches and how this is causing more stress to those people delivering ‘faster, better’ etc… Do we really understand the impact of what we are building and on those being tasked to deliver and run these services – plus ‘agile causes stress…’ Yes – (you’ll need to listen in). Let’s think about context and consequences, not just outcomes.. We also do a little conference preview and also mention our late friend and colleague Rebecca Beach, who recently passed away… A stiff drink is needed to toast her memory.

Lisa runs a successful and growing HR consultancy business – providing the ‘HR’ department for many organisations, particularly in the tech industry. Many changes have taken place over recent years with employee experience roles becoming prevalent.  We discuss culture, values, trust, and the implications of home-working surveillance tools, as well as the challenges of how to move from an entrepreneurial culture to a more structure and process-driven way (often a challenge…) business leaders are often not the best team leaders or managers…!! A great conversation around the intersection of people, tech, management and culture.

Sherry is an experienced and prolific trainer and coach, for leadership, particularly for women in Tech. She has come from the IT and service desk world but now focuses on leadership coaching as well as managing change projects. Sherry brings a different and refreshing focus to our discussion with the perspective of how we are developing our leaders and leadership capabilities. The discussion is full of sage nuggets of advice around leadership qualities, the value of coaching, and how we can help to develop people to be more effective in new management roles. This is a fascinating discussion and also a new perspective on our ESM theme. And yes it ends up in the bar..

Our guest is Alan Nance who has been a key player in the Service Management world since the beginning of time - or at least a while anyway since ITIL was knee high to a grasshopper. Alan is a driving force behind the XLA movement and is involved in developing and taking the whole XLA concept to market through his company XLA Collab. We discuss the essence of experience management, what it is and how it can be used in relation to service management. This is still a new area and the concepts are evolving as well as adoption growing. There’s much to learn and appreciate in this revealing and insightful conversation. And yes we do end up in the bar…

Jeffrey is a highly experienced ITSM practitioner and consultant with great energy and focus on doing the right things and doing them well. He also runs a successful podcast and has published lots of great advice on YouTube videos. We discuss how every organisation is an IT organisation but shouldn’t just focus on IT, how an organisation lost control of 159,000 laptops and why CMDB and why CMDB is important. This is a brilliant high energy and practical discussion around getting the basics as well as the shiny things right..! definitely a great bar-room chat!