Culture as the True Success Factor in ITIL Adoption

# Humanizing IT

# ITIL

Why people, not processes or technology, determine the success of ITIL adoption

July 21, 2026

Yurguen Penaranda Thomas

Culture as the True Success Factor in ITIL Adoption

Introduction: The Silent Problem

ITIL is one of the most widely used frameworks worldwide for the management of services and digital products. Because of this, many organizations decide to base their management practices on ITIL; however, in doing so, some fail to achieve the expected results.

In many cases, the failure does not lie in the processes, documentation, metrics, or selected tools, but rather in something more human: the inability to foster an organizational culture where all involved employees understand: What is ITIL? What changes in the way of working does its adoption imply? What is the expected benefit?

The Myth of ITIL Implementation

This is because some organizations still believe that adopting ITIL simply consists of implementing an ITSM tool that facilitates the handling of incidents and requests through ticket assignment. In other cases, ITIL adoption is considered to be limited to the design and documentation of detailed processes, procedures, and manuals.

While it is true that adopting tools can streamline support activities and that defining and documenting processes enables standardization across the organization’s operations, these initiatives alone do not encompass what ITIL adoption truly means and therefore are unlikely to generate the expected benefits of a more comprehensive adoption.

ITIL adoption should not be limited to documenting processes or using software; rather, it involves changing the way an organization works.

What Does Culture Mean in ITIL?

ITIL 4 introduced the concept of the Four Dimensions of Service Management (a concept that is reinforced in ITIL Version 5). These dimensions are: Organizations and People; Information and Technology; Partners and Suppliers; and Value Streams and Processes. These dimensions are fundamental to ensuring a holistic approach to service delivery and management, thereby enabling value creation for the business.

These dimensions are highly interconnected and should not be considered in isolation. A change in one dimension will generally have an impact (positive or negative) on the others. Adopting a holistic approach ensures that these interdependencies are understood and managed collectively.

ITIL formally defines culture as “a set of values shared by a group of people, expressed through people's behaviors, ideas, beliefs, and practices” (PeopleCert, 2026). Culture is an element included within the “Organizations and People” dimension.

An organization’s culture must be aligned with its objectives, encouraging people to contribute to achieving them, to learning and improvement, to trust, and to feeling free to express themselves, including raising concerns about risks they may have identified regarding decisions made by the organization.

When Culture Does Not Support the Effort: Why ITIL Fails

Alvarez, S. T., & Linares, C. A. (2026) presented a report covering 72 studies conducted between 2020 and 2025 that analyzed the main obstacles organizations face when adopting ITSM frameworks (including ITIL). The analysis concluded that 82% of the cases studied experienced issues related to Culture and Change (resistance to change, organizational silos, and lack of leadership). In addition, 85% of the cases presented problems due to a lack of clarity in objectives, and 65% experienced conflicts between organizational areas. This study demonstrates how underestimating the Culture factor negatively impacts ITIL adoption.

When a holistic view of ITIL is lacking, implementation is primarily focused on adopting a technological tool: creating service catalogs, defining workflows, enabling technological infrastructure, configuring the tool, integrating it with other organizational tools, performing tests, training users, and finally deploying it into production.

Another approach to ITIL adoption without a holistic vision is to focus primarily on process definition: making adjustments to existing processes, defining their respective elements (inputs, activities, outputs, decision points, associated tools, and roles), identifying interdependencies with other processes, producing extensive documentation, and training the personnel involved.

Following the first approach described above may result in a successful deployment of the ITSM tool, including personnel who know how to use it from a technical perspective. The second approach may result in detailed process documentation and personnel who understand how to execute those processes and how they interact with other organizational processes.

However, both approaches fail by overlooking the Culture factor. If adequate importance is not given to this factor, resistance to change may emerge among individuals regarding the new technological tool to be used or the adjustments made to existing processes. Such resistance may lead to incorrect use of the tool or even the use of alternative unofficial tools for specific activities, while processes may no longer be followed according to the established workflow, with activities skipped or controls bypassed.

The presence of these situations distorts the expected benefits of ITIL adoption (reduced delivery times, lower operating costs, fewer errors, and greater efficiency, among others), thereby creating the false perception that adopting this framework does not actually deliver the value it promises.

The Relationship Between Culture and ITIL Guiding Principles

ITIL 4 introduced the Guiding Principles (which are reinforced in ITIL Version 5). These seven principles are recommendations that guide organizations under all circumstances.

By considering these principles during ITIL adoption, organizations foster an appropriate organizational culture, since they implicitly include several elements related to organizational culture.

Focus on Value: Ensure that people clearly understand how adopting an ITSM tool, redesigning processes, or, more broadly, adopting ITIL practices can bring benefits to the performance of their work and therefore contribute positively to achieving the organization’s objectives.

Start Where You Are: Understand which cultural elements people value most (recognition, benefits, professional growth) and ensure that ITIL adoption does not undermine these elements but instead seeks ways to strengthen them.

Progress Iteratively with Feedback: Implementing adoption initiatives through incremental work segments allows people to adapt more easily to the changes involved. Furthermore, the feedback received in each iteration can be incorporated into subsequent cycles.

Collaborate and Promote Visibility: Being transparent with people regarding the progress of transformation initiatives helps them feel part of the organization. Promoting collaboration across organizational areas also creates a culture where everyone feels they are working together to achieve common objectives.

Think and Work Holistically: This principle recognizes that organizations operate as complex systems and that the Four Dimensions of Service Management are equally important in enabling successful ITIL adoption. It is not only about technology or only about processes; an integrated view of the entire system is required.

Keep It Simple and Practical: Adopting simple ITSM practices and tools helps reduce resistance to change. It makes it easier for people to understand how new practices are executed and how new tools are used, helping them understand the benefits these practices bring both to their roles and to the organization.

Optimize and Automate: Automation must go hand in hand with the other elements already discussed: defining simple practices and fostering a communication-oriented culture in which people clearly understand the value that adopting ITIL practices brings to the organization. If inefficient practices or a negative organizational culture exist, automation will not be able to generate its full expected value.

What a Culture That Enables ITIL Adoption Looks Like

In an organization where culture is aligned with and promotes the adoption of ITIL practices, the following behaviors are commonly observed:

People Understand the Purpose Behind the Practices

People know why certain practices, controls, or tools are implemented and can relate them directly to value creation for the organization.

Errors Are Seen as Learning Opportunities

The organization seeks to understand root causes and continuously improve, avoiding cultures where people hide problems out of fear of repercussions.

Collaboration Exists Between Organizational Areas

Services are managed as integrated value streams rather than as isolated responsibilities belonging to independent departments.

Leaders Model the Expected Behaviors

Managers and leaders use the defined processes, promote continual improvement, and support the changes necessary for successful ITIL adoption.

Conclusion

Successful ITIL adoption does not depend solely on processes, documentation, or deployed tools. Although these elements are important, by themselves they cannot generate the expected value. The differentiating factor generally lies in organizational culture and in enabling people to understand, accept, and adopt changes in the way they work.

Organizations that achieve sustainable results through ITIL adoption are those that understand that such adoption is primarily a human process. These organizations encourage collaboration, learning, communication, trust, continual improvement, and a shared vision for achieving organizational objectives. In such environments, ITIL practices cease to be perceived merely as processes that people must follow to “comply” and instead become a natural way of working that allows them to perform their tasks more effectively.

Because of this, when an ITIL adoption initiative is not generating the expected value, organizations should not only question whether the technological tool was implemented correctly or whether the processes were properly designed. The primary question should be whether a culture was created that enabled people to understand the value of these tools and processes, allowing the initiative to truly succeed.

Sources

Alvarez, S. T., & Linares, C. A. (2026). Problems in the Adoption of Information Technology Service Management Models: A Systematic Literature Review. Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology, 10(1), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.55214/2576-8484.v10i1.11491

PeopleCert (2026). ITIL® Foundation Version 5: Official Book.

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