Paul Brothwood: ITIL 4 and Operational Improvement
Paul Brothwood has used ITIL principles throughout a career spanning financial services, construction, utilities and operational leadership. After completing ITIL Foundation and progressing to ITIL 4 Practitioner level, I began to see service management as more than an IT discipline. Its strongest lessons concern value, customer needs, effective workflows and continual improvement.
A note on ITIL Version 5
Since this article was first written, PeopleCert has begun the phased introduction of ITIL Version 5. PeopleCert states that existing ITIL knowledge and qualifications retain their value, and ITIL 4 remains available during the transition.
This article concentrates on ITIL 4 because its principles have shaped my approach to leadership and operational improvement.
How ITIL changed
Earlier versions of ITIL helped organisations define responsibilities, standardise recurring activities and reduce service disruption. That discipline remains useful, especially where reliability and control are essential.
Problems arise when following the process becomes more important than achieving the right result. Teams might complete every required step without resolving the customer’s problem or improving the service.
ITIL 4 shifted the emphasis towards value. Its Service Value System encouraged organisations to examine how people, processes, technology, suppliers and governance work together to achieve an outcome.
This approach matters in operational environments. A customer outcome often depends on several connected teams, including planning, scheduling, customer contact, stores, field operations, contractors and assurance. Improving one department achieves little if delays and communication failures remain between teams.
Focus on value
One of the most useful ITIL principles is to focus on value. Every activity should contribute to an outcome that matters to the customer, organisation or wider stakeholder group.
Organisations often measure internal activity because it is easy to record. Reports produced, tasks opened and meetings held all demonstrate activity, but they do not prove that the service has improved.
The customer is more interested in whether the work was completed safely, reliably and at the agreed time. Leaders therefore need to connect operational measures with the result experienced by the customer.
This principle applies far beyond IT. In utilities, construction and field operations, value includes service reliability, safety, environmental performance, quality and clear communication.
Map the whole service
ITIL 4 places greater attention on value streams. A value stream shows the activities required to take a request or opportunity through to a completed outcome.
This helps leaders identify delays, repeated work and unclear responsibilities. It also prevents departments from improving their own performance at the expense of the wider service.
If an operational job requires a repeat visit, the reason does not always sit with the frontline team. Possible causes include incomplete information, unavailable materials, access problems, unsuitable scheduling or an unclear job description.
An end-to-end review examines the complete journey instead of assigning blame to the final person involved. It gives leaders a better basis for improving performance.
Keep improvement practical
ITIL 4 reinforces several practical habits:
• Start with a clear understanding of the value required.
• Use existing strengths before replacing systems or processes.
• Make work and responsibilities visible.
• Involve the people who perform the work.
• Introduce improvements in manageable stages.
• Remove complexity that serves no useful purpose.
These habits fit well with operational leadership. Large transformation programmes often fail because they attempt too much at once or are designed without enough involvement from the people affected.
A smaller improvement, tested with the right team and supported by clear evidence, often produces a stronger result. The lessons from that work then support the next stage.
Customers help create value
ITIL 4 also strengthened the idea that value is created with customers and users. It is not something an organisation delivers to passive recipients.
Regular feedback helps teams understand whether the service is meeting the intended need. It also identifies problems that internal performance reports might miss.
This requires open communication and a willingness to listen. Leaders need feedback from customers, employees, contractors and other partners involved in delivering the service.
In my experience, the people closest to the work often identify the most practical improvements. Their knowledge should form part of operational decisions from the beginning.
Working with Agile and Lean principles
ITIL 4 has a closer relationship with Agile, Lean and DevOps thinking than earlier versions. These approaches share an emphasis on visible work, shorter feedback cycles, collaboration and learning.
For an operational team, this means testing a focused improvement, measuring the result and adjusting the approach before expanding it.
Lean thinking also supports the examination of value streams. It helps teams identify waiting time, duplication, unnecessary handovers and activities that do not contribute to the required outcome.
ITIL provides structure, whereas Lean helps challenge waste within that structure. Used together, they support disciplined improvement without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
Continual improvement must lead to action
Continual improvement is not an annual exercise or a list of ideas that receives no further attention. Each improvement needs a defined problem, an owner, a desired outcome and an agreed measure of success.
The starting position should be recorded before changes are introduced. Without that baseline, it is difficult to prove whether performance has improved.
Measures should also remain balanced. Reducing completion time is not a success if safety, quality, environmental performance or customer communication deteriorate.
Data helps identify patterns, but figures rarely explain the whole problem. Frontline knowledge, customer feedback and professional judgement remain essential when deciding what action to take.
Applying ITIL outside traditional IT
Construction and utilities depend on connected services. Planning, logistics, procurement, equipment, health and safety, customer contact and field delivery all contribute to the final result.
ITIL does not replace engineering standards, project controls, safe systems of work or professional judgement. It helps connect these disciplines around a shared outcome.
This is where I have found ITIL most useful. It provides a consistent way to examine how work moves through an organisation, where responsibility sits and whether each activity contributes to value.
What ITIL changed in my leadership
The first lesson is that a process is a means of achieving an outcome, not the outcome itself. If a process no longer supports the service, leaders should review it.
The second lesson is that responsibility should extend across the complete flow of work. Departmental targets should not encourage teams to pass problems from one area to another.
The third lesson is that improvement should form part of normal operations. Teams need the time, information and authority to identify problems and improve how work is delivered.
ITIL 4 gave me a practical language for connecting service management, leadership and operational performance. As ITIL moves into Version 5, its continuing value will depend on the same principle that has always mattered most: helping people and organisations achieve better outcomes.
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like:
Paul Brothwood | PRINCE2: Moving with the Times
https://www.paulbrothwood.co.uk/2024/11/prince2-moving-with-times.html
Paul Brothwood | Business Re-engineering with Health and Safety
https://www.paulbrothwood.co.uk/2024/10/business-re-engineering-with-health-and.html
Paul Brothwood | Chartered Environmentalist
https://www.paulbrothwood.co.uk/2026/06/paul-brothwood-chartered-environmentalist.html
About Paul Brothwood
Paul Brothwood is an Operations Manager at National Grid Electricity Distribution and a Chartered Environmentalist. He writes about operational excellence, leadership, project management, service management, sustainability and continual improvement, drawing on experience across financial services, construction and utilities.
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