What can ITIL learn from American Gas Stations?

As an immigrant to the US, it took a while before I got comfortable using the bathrooms in the gas stations on long drives. In most other countries, the bathrooms tend to be unusable. In Britain you have to deposit money to use them and the auto-clean can be interesting experiences.

My wife and I always talked about how they managed to keep those things clean. And it occurred to us one day that it was all because of the long unwieldy things the key is attached to. You can’t loose the key or leave it in the lock.

As I sit in a lot of these ITIL conversations around change management, I find myself smiling. Only if we could maintain the same process around our infrastructure, like the gas stations have around their bathrooms, availability would jump another 9 atleast. Keep the infrastructure locked, till there is an approved change (like the guy who bought gas at your station) and then give them the key with a really long handle, so they can’t loose it or forget it or pass it to someone else

There are some great ideas and parallels in the book by Suellen Hoy

Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness (Paperback)

Enjoy!