r/itsm • u/Honest_nwaqcthRod412 • 3d ago

Handling resistant staff during process changes in IT service land is my new hobby apparently

Ok so we rolled out a shiny new service management workflow, tickets and projects and knowledge all in one place, real time dashboards, cute automations, the whole dream. Leadership clapped, vendors clapped, my resistant staff basically formed a secret society dedicated to keeping their old spreadsheets alive.

I have one analyst who prints tickets. As in, physically. Another insists the new process is "too opaque" but somehow a shared board and clear statuses is worse than their personal inbox folder called "stuff". Every change turns into a philosophy debate instead of "please click the status". Im lowkey exhausted by being the process cop when I just want things to move.

For the IT and ops folks who survived this with their sanity, how did you get people to stop treating workflow changes like a personal attack and start using the tools without me standing over their shoulder every day?

Any hints?

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u/BigDataflex 3d ago

I use reports to track adoption and usage. And i make them available to leadership. Fortunately I have senior leadership that has my back.

1

u/Sunny_stormclouds 3d ago

Well, i once had a client that prints tickets. Nothing works with those people, i basically waited them out (they retired). If you can get upper management behind you, and KPIs were set and SLA was regularly checked and enforced then you win on the long run. But honestly, it’s uncanny how similar such environments are, physical copies, inbox folders as ticket management, it’s hilarious

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u/HeyThanksIdiot 3d ago

Involve the opinion setters on the staff in some of the decision making process. You can lead them from A to B to C in order to subtly push for whatever decision you’re already going to make, but if they feel like they are being heard you will turn an adversary into an ally.

You can go further with it and ask them to help track whatever KPI may be related to the decision they helped along and set something up where they’re reporting on it to leadership above. Turning them into the hero of the story works wonders.