Let’s shine the light on service desk brilliance

I’ve discussed the importance of an organization’s mission, vision and goals (MVG) statements. MVG is the foundation for all other organizational activities. MVG defines and clarifies priorities and objectives of an organization, enables continual feedback and improvement. Ensuring that everyone within an organization understands both MVG and how they individually contribute to MVG are critical factors for an organization’s success.

Recently, I participated in a process design engineering class, led by Donna Knapp, when the discussion turned to the importance of MVG. Donna shared a saying that she’s long heard when it comes to MVG:

“The further you are from the flashlight, the dimmer the light.”

Donna explained that at the executive level of an organization, vision and mission seem clear. But within many organizations, the messaging behind MVG becomes more diluted the further away associates are from the executive suite.

And that spells trouble.

Why is MVG a problem for many organizations?

MVG is critical for leading organizations to success, which is the primary function of executives within the organization.  A mission statement is a concise, clear statement of an organization’s purpose. A good vision statement is an aspirational statement that provides direction to lead an organization to a point that is currently unknown. To lead, executives need people to follow.

But without a shared understanding of MVG across the organization, what should people follow? And why is this a problem?

Without clearly defined, communicated, and understood MVG, organizations often fall into some bad practices.

Without clarity regarding MVG, work across teams often becomes isolated from other teams. Departmental managers pursue what they feel are the right things to do. Or they do work that ensures that their departments have complete control of their work products, usually at the expense of other activities within the organization. This leads to duplication of effort, poor collaboration and inefficiencies.

Secondly, if the direction defined by MVG is not understood, organizations may not spot or act on potential opportunities to innovate, grow, or improve.

How does MVG impact the service desk?

One of the most significant things an IT organization does within a company is design, deliver and support technology-based products and services. These products and services are intended to enable the organization to achieve its MVG.

Sadly, many IT organizations do not define and publish a service catalog that describes how products and services contribute to MVG, but that is another story.

As the single point of contact regarding issues and requests with those IT products and services, the service desk captures and reacts to what’s happening at the consumer level. To do this, service desk agents must evaluate what the consumer is reporting and make quick decisions regarding how to react. And here’s where poorly understood MVG impacts the service desk. How?

• Lack of clarity regarding company objectives – Clarity regarding MVG impacts how the service desk prioritizes and categorizes contacts from consumers of IT products and services. Issues that are critical to MVG success should be prioritized over other issues, that while important, are not as urgent.
• Feeling disjointed from the company –Often the work at the service desk feels like one contact after another, with little appreciation or empathy of the work being done by a service desk agent. It is sometimes difficult for a service desk agent to recognize or realize how their work contributes to MVG. As a result, service desk performance often suffers.

Shine the MVG light on the service desk

As a service desk manager, you may feel that there is little you can do regarding MVG. But that’s not true. Here are four suggestions:

• Ask what you can do to contribute. Have a conversation with your manager about MVG and how you can (or do) contribute. Talk about how contributions are mapped and measured at the management level.
• Continually discuss MVG. Simply announcing goals and objectives at a yearly town hall meeting or publishing MVG on an internal website is not enough. Discuss the contributions of the service desk to MVG in team meetings and one-on-one discussions. Talk about the vital role of the service desk in meeting organizational objectives. Doing so not only reminds service desk agents of the importance of MVG, but it also provides clarity and direction.
• Measure the right things. When MVG statements are not integrated into daily operations, measurement becomes disconnected from performance. While identifying the service desk measures that can be captured by the service desk regarding MVG may be a challenge, publishing measures related to MVG illustrates the critical contribution of the service desk.
• Shine the spotlight on the service desk. Yes, you know that the service desk matters. But does anyone else know how important the service desk is for MVG success? Calling attention to what the service desk is trying to achieve may seem basic, but it is also psychologically powerful. Show why the service desk matters and boost your team’s morale.