In our meet the eConsultant® blogs, you can learn more about the eConsultants who work with Scopism and could be helping your business. Today, we profile Karen, a Brit based in Australia. To learn more, view Karen’s profile.
Tell us about yourself
I have been working in ITSM for longer than I like to admit but love working in the industry. I have worked in the guise of practitioner, manager, trainer and consultant over the years.
I have been living in Australia since 1998 having originally come from Liverpool in the UK.
I was introduced to ITIL way back in 1995 and have watched how it has evolved over the years and how organisations have used it. I am passionate about integrating other approaches and frameworks with ITIL such as Agile to meet the changing needs of the business.
What took you to Australia?
I was offered an initial 3-month contract with a company called ProActive Services whose head office was in Melbourne. ProActive were looking for qualified consultants to deliver training and consultancy and could not resource this in Australia so looked to the UK.
After 3 months, we extended to 6 months and then I decided to stay and have never looked back.
Is there anything you miss about the UK?
Watching Liverpool FC play on a Saturday afternoon and not at some ungodly hour of the morning!
Snow at Christmas. Even after 18 years here I find Father Christmas (dressed in all his regalia) an odd site on a sunny, 40C day.
What makes your approach different?
I always strive to do myself out of a job! That might sound odd but it’s all about empowering the customer. I see so many consulting organisations (and often the large ones) lock themselves into a customer by not empowering the customer or imparting knowledge, and therefore they become difficult for the organisation to dispense with.
My objective is to walk out of the customer’s door knowing that they are able to continue with whatever it was that they engaged me for.
I take a down-to-earth pragmatic approach and ensure that the customer and myself are on the same page in regards to the ‘definition of done’.
Not only am I a ITSM consultant but I am also a organisational change management practitioner (PROSCI certified) which means that I can effectively manage the people side of change which is often the biggest challenges that organisation face and often ignore. Without winning the hearts and minds of the people impacted by a change, the transition will be highly unlikely to be successful.
What eConsultancy packages do you most enjoy delivering?
I enjoy delivering them all but Change Enabler has to be high on the list because of my passions for organisational change management.
I also like Building An Improvement Plan. I love being able to help customers reach a desired goal by having a realistic and achievable improvement plan. Often organisations put in place improvement plans with delivery dates that are just unachievable. Everyone gets frustrated and no one wins. So a pragmatic and agile approach to improvement is a much more effective and efficient way to address improvements.
What are your key takeaways?
Adopt and adapt – rinse and repeat!
It’s ok to fail, just ensure you learn from it.
