Every IT manager knows the scene: that one colleague who reacts instantly, picks up tickets, and proudly says, “Another one solved!”
And yet… the flow remains sluggish. Waiting times persist, problems keep coming back, and escalations pile up.
How is that possible?
The escalator paradox: what London teaches us about IT service management
In 2015, the London Underground ran an experiment at Holborn Station. Until then, the rule was: stand on the right, walk on the left. Logical, you’d think — those in a hurry walk.
But then came the experiment: everyone had to stand still — on both sides of the escalator.
The result was remarkable:
- With “stand on the right, walk on the left”: 81 people per minute
- With everyone standing still: 112 people per minute
An increase of nearly 40% in throughput — not by moving faster, but by using the system more intelligently.
The lesson: the speed of the system isn’t determined by the fastest individuals, but by how well the parts work together.
Exactly the same applies to IT service management.
The pitfall of local optimization
The founder of systems thinking, Russell Ackoff, once said:
“The performance of a system depends on how the parts interact, not on how they act taken separately.”
You can recognize this easily within the IT department:
- The analyst who fixes incidents “on the fly” but doesn’t take time to document them → the next shift has to start all over again.
- The manager who pushes a change through without a testing phase → the risk of failures increases.
- The service desk that handles requests outside the ticketing system → prioritization gets lost.
Local gain, system loss.
This is the escalator problem in IT terms: someone runs, while standing still would benefit everyone.
Where does your IT system really get stuck?
According to Eliyahu Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC), every system has one bottleneck — the point that determines total throughput. Improvements made before or after that bottleneck? A waste of effort.
The key is to identify that bottleneck — and focus your efforts right there.
In ITSM, this often shows up in:
- Ticket ping-pong: tickets endlessly bouncing between departments
- Approval processes that create delays
- Unclear responsibilities during escalations
The TOC approach in four steps:
- Identify the bottleneck — where does it really get stuck?
- Exploit the capacity — make the most of what’s available.
- Subordinate the rest — align all other processes to the pace of the bottleneck.
- Elevate — add capacity or improve structurally.
And then? Start again. Once one bottleneck is removed, the next one becomes visible.
Within the ISM method, this is a familiar principle: don’t try to improve everything at once — work in a structured, cyclical way on what has the greatest impact on service delivery.
Behavior as a lever: OBM in practice
A good process is worthless if people don’t follow it. That’s why sustainable improvement is not just about structure — it’s about behavior.
Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) offers practical tools for this. It doesn’t focus on motivational talk, but on environment and reinforcement:
- Mandatory fields in the tool enforce knowledge capture.
- Direct feedback encourages correct process behavior.
- Visualizing impact shows how good behavior contributes to faster resolutions.
Research shows that OBM leads to higher productivity, better collaboration, and sustainable improvement behavior.
Within the ISM method, this fits perfectly: behavior follows structure. By aligning processes, responsibilities, and tooling, the desired behavior becomes natural.
The winning combination: Systems Thinking, TOC, and OBM
The power lies in the coherence.
Those who combine these three ways of thinking lay the foundation for a mature IT organization:
- Systems thinking — Stop firefighting. Look at the whole system and discover where it’s getting out of balance.
- Theory of Constraints — Focus on the real bottleneck, not on treating symptoms.
- OBM — Design your work environment so that people naturally do the right thing.
The result: better collaboration, shorter lead times, and greater calm in operations.
Finally: dare to stand still
In a culture of “faster, harder, more,” standing still is almost taboo. Yet that’s often where the key to real improvement lies.
So before you push your team to work even faster, ask yourself:
are we perhaps on the wrong escalator?
Further reading
Want to learn how to apply these principles structurally within your organization?
Read more about the ISM method or discover the ITSM Masterclass — the training where you’ll learn how Systems Thinking, TOC, and OBM together create control over IT service delivery.
