MIM Quote Book Major Incident Management

The Art of Major Incident Management

1. The Art of
Major Incident
Management
Musings from MIM
®

2. Welcome to major insights about Major
Incidents from MIM® founder, Adam Norman.
We often receive requests for best practice
insights to inspire teams, spark conversations,
and explain the nuances of our unique industry.
That’s why we created this book, so Major Incident
professionals from across the globe have a go-to
guide for Major Incident inspiration.
From leadership styles to bridge calls best
practice, read on to discover real-world words of
wisdom from the frontline.
Whether you devour it in one sitting or dip in and
out during active Major Incidents, this book offers
Major Incident insights on demand.
Organised into themes, these Major Incident
musings are great conversation starters and
encourage critical thinking to promote best
practice in the Major Incident industry.
Adam Norman is the CEO at MIM® and the world’s
leading expert on IT Major Incident Management.
Adam founded MIM® over a decade ago and
continues to help professionals and companies
around the world achieve Major Incident excellence.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
2

3. ABOUT MIM®
MIM® is the professional body
dedicated to developing,
managing, and delivering
our qualifications in The
Global Best Practice IT Major
Incident Management
®
.
We work with leading organisations in over 95 countries to
unleash their talent and effectiveness. MIM® is continually
shaping the future of Major Incident Management.
3

4. We create the
best Major Incident
Managers in the world.

majorincidentmanagement.com
4

5. 01 Leadership
02 Conflict Management
03 Bridge calls
04 Comms
05 The Service Desk and Major Incident Management
06 Personal brand
07 Miscellaneous musings
CONTENTS
5

6. 01
Leadership

7. Major Incident Management is leadership.
As Major Incident Managers, all of us lead.
01 LEADERSHIP
7

8. Leaders have followers.
You cannot force people to follow your leadership.
They must choose to follow you.
So, inspire them!
01 LEADERSHIP
8

9. 01 LEADERSHIP
A large part of your role as a
Major Incident Manager is leadership.
So, why would you not spend time and
effort mastering the skills of leadership?
9

10. How you lead and engage Major Incidents will influence and
shape the behaviours, attitudes, and performance of the
technical staff, leadership, end users, and stakeholders.
01 LEADERSHIP
10

11. The ‘why ’ is extremely powerful. Highly skilled
technical staff often focus on the technology.
Your job is to constantly remind them ‘why ’ they are
springing into action: because people are affected.
01 LEADERSHIP
11

12. As Major Incident Managers we are entrusted to protect our
company, stakeholders and end users when they need us most.
In a time of chaos - possibly commercial crisis -
we must live up to this trust and responsibility .
01 LEADERSHIP
12

13. 01 LEADERSHIP / STRONGER TOGETHER
We need the collective brainpower
of the technical experts.
Being overly authoritarian can alienate people,
kill collaboration, and delay the resolution.
13

14. 01 LEADERSHIP / STRONGER TOGETHER
Process matters.
Tools matter .
But the largest performance shifts in Major
Incident Management come from developing
the leadership and communication skills
of individuals and teams.
14

15. 01 LEADERSHIP / STRONGER TOGETHER
Major Incident Management
is not a zero-sum game.
You cannot win in the long run without strong
relationships with the technical teams.
15

16. We need to “win” the next 10, 100, 1000 Major Incidents,
not just the one in front of you.
So, consider relationships as long-term and act accordingly.
01 LEADERSHIP / STRONGER TOGETHER
16

17. Effective Major Incident Management is all about
maximising collaboration between diverse
groups of people to achieve a shared goal.
01 LEADERSHIP / STRONGER TOGETHER
17

18. 01 LEADERSHIP / STRONGER TOGETHER
Maximizing collaboration
enhances performance
during Major Incidents.
18

19. 01 LEADERSHIP / STRONGER TOGETHER 19
It’s best practice to build relationships
with the Cyber Security Teams before
engaging in a live Major Incident with them.
19

20. 01 LEADERSHIP / LEADERSHIP STYLES
Understanding yourself is the prerequisite to
understanding others on a deeper level and
improving communication and teamwork.
20

21. 01 LEADERSHIP / LEADERSHIP STYLES
Effective Major Incident Managers apply the
democratic style of leadership most of the time.
That’s because input from the wider group
informs their final decision.
21

22. 01 LEADERSHIP / LEADERSHIP STYLES
Being assertive doesn’t
mean that you’re using the
authoritarian leadership style.
Democratic leaders can still be
strong-minded and resolute.
22

23. 01 LEADERSHIP / LEADERSHIP STYLES
You can do everything right during a Major Incident and still fail.
If you cannot adapt your style to present
information in a way a stakeholder can digest,
then you will not be able to achieve a quick resolution.
23

24. 01 LEADERSHIP / LEADERSHIP STYLES
We rarely have direct line
management of the people we
lead during a Major Incident.
This means we are fully dependent on
our ability to lead in a style which inspires
them to want to follow our leadership.
24

25. 01 LEADERSHIP / WINNING CULTURE
In Major Incident Management if you want high performance
then you must create a positive, resilient and collaborative
environment for your teams.
25

26. 01 LEADERSHIP / WINNING CULTURE
As the Major Incident Manager,
you are the person responsible
for crafting, leading, and
nurturing the culture.
26

27. 01 LEADERSHIP / COMMUNICATION
Top-performing Major Incident
Managers share the ability to
communicate with people effectively.
27

28. 01 LEADERSHIP / COMMUNICATION
How many people do you interact
with during a Major Incident?
Consider the positive impact you could have by
maximising your communication and leadership skills.
28

29. 01 LEADERSHIP / COMMUNICATION
So, express yourself effectively.
Miscommunication is one of the main
causes of confusion, chaos, frustration and
lack of confidence during a Major Incident.
29

30. 01 LEADERSHIP / COMMUNICATION
Developing your skills to become an effective
communicator is a fundamental requirement of
leading Major Incidents and helps to minimise
conflict, misunderstandings, and missed deadlines.
30

31. 01 LEADERSHIP / COMMUNICATION
In Major Incident Management, psychometric profiling
gives you a better understanding of people’s communication
style, stressors, motivators, and preferences.
31

32. 01 LEADERSHIP / COMMUNICATION
Psychometric profiling is like a cheat code to unlock better
communication, instil more confidence in stakeholders
and colleagues, inspire more people to want to follow
your leadership, and boost team performance.
32

33. 01 LEADERSHIP / COMMUNICATION
Major Incident Managers should meet people where they are,
not expect them to meet us.
That’s why altering your communication style to match the
recipient’s communication style is exceptionally powerful.
Psychometric profiling gives you a greater understanding of this.
33

34. 02
Conflict Management

35. 02 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Conflict management in Major Incident Management is not
what most people assume.
Major Incident Managers mostly use conflict management
skills and techniques to navigate issues between others,
not their own conflicts.
Our ability to help navigate others’ conflicts will keep the
team aligned towards a swift resolution.
35

36. 02 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
If 10 Technical Resolving Group members are working
towards a Major Incident resolution, each member represents
10% of the brain power required to resolve the incident.
(In reality, it is usually the case that two people are the main contributors
with a 60%/40% split regardless of how many attend the bridge call). If
you lose input from one of those two key technical staff then the Major
Incident resolution progress slows down or stops. To prevent this, we
need to be aware of the reasons this occurs.
36

37. 02 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
If someone pulls apart a Technical Resolving Group
member’s plan of action in front of their peers,
you will lose their input.
In this situation, our job as Major Incident Managers
is to navigate the conflict, find win/win scenarios
and get everyone engaged and contributing again.
37

38. 02 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Simple misunderstandings or miscommunications during
Major Incident bridge calls often cause technical staff to
stop contributing their ideas and knowledge.
As Major Incident Managers, identifying and navigating this
will speed up a successful resolution for the wider group.
38

39. 02 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Like us, stakeholders want Major Incidents
to be resolved as quickly as possible.
So, when there is conflict remember:
Same goal, same team.
39

40. 03
Bridge calls

41. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
If you have 100+ people on your Major
Incident bridge call, your stakeholders don’t
trust Major Incident Management ...yet.
41

42. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
How do you deal with 100 people
on a Major Incident bridge call?
You don’t.
42

43. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
Just because you have always had 100+ people
on your calls, does not mean it is a good idea,
or that you should keep doing this.
43

44. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
When there is silence on a Major Incident bridge call,
it is our job to get the technical teams engaging and contributing.
Do not wait for them to do this themselves.
44

45. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
When no one is speaking during a Major Incident
bridge call, questions are powerful and can be used to
effectively control and direct Major Incident bridge calls.
Ask each technical member:
What have you looked at?
What can you look at next?
This creates order and control, sets expectations,
and gets people talking.
45

46. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
You do not need to be highly technical
to run Major Incidents.
46

47. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
If not, you should.
Do you check in with all action owners at the
halfway mark for every single Major Incident?
47

48. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
One of the most basic tactics we should be applying
at the halfway point is to check in with action owners.
48

49. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
Stakeholders trying to take over your Major Incident bridge
call is a symptom of poor stakeholder confidence.
49

50. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
If, at the halfway point,
actions are not progressing
you have two options:
1. Get more resources and meet the deadline.
2. Proactively inform key stakeholders of
delays before issuing formal comms.
50

51. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
Proactively updating stakeholders about delays
demonstrates control and leadership.
The response you receive is completely different
from if you were to issue a formal comms update
that informs of no progress or missed deadlines.
51

52. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
Stakeholder confidence is king.
Calling one or two key stakeholders shows leadership,
control, and efficiency and can completely change the
perception of the Major Incident and Major Incident Manager.
52

53. 03 BRIDGE CALLS
If stakeholders are trying to find out what is
going on with a Major Incident, then we have
failed to manage stakeholder confidence.
53

54. 04
Comms

55. 04 COMMS
There are two reasons to (formally)
communicate during Major Incidents:
If your comms don’t communicate either,
what is the purpose of your comms?
1. To get action
2. Impart information
55

56. 04 COMMS
Issuing comms that repeat the same
things as the previous update looks
like a lack of progress to stakeholders.
56

57. 04 COMMS
Our only touch point with some stakeholders
is via digital comms, which represents how
the Major Incident is being managed.
That’s why your comms must be effective and clear .
57

58. 04 COMMS
If the quality of the comms decreases
throughout a Major Incident you will
lose stakeholder confidence.
It doesn’t matter how well you
managed the previous Major Incident.
One poor piece of comms can
undermine everyone’s hard work.
58

59. 04 COMMS
No matter how quickly you resolve
Major Incidents, if you fail to
communicate with stakeholders
you will lose goodwill.
59

60. 04 COMMS
If you keep missing the initial comms deadline, are you trying to gather
too much information at the expense of speed of communication?
60

61. 04 COMMS
Initial comms let stakeholders, end users, and the
operation know we are aware and taking action.
As such, they establish confidence in the Major Incident practice.
You won’t - and don’t - need to know everything at this stage.
61

62. 04 COMMS
They should be concise and swift.
Taking too long to issue the initial Major Incident comms
impacts stakeholder confidence.
62

63. 04 COMMS
Initial Major Incident comms set the tone
for your engagement with stakeholders.
Get this wrong and it becomes harder
to gain their trust and confidence.
63

64. 05
The Service Desk and
Major Incident Management

65. 05 THE SERVICE DESK AND MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
The Service Desk is often the
inception point for Major Incidents.
The quality and quantity of information we capture at
this point can determine the performance for the whole
Major Incident (including stakeholder confidence).
65

66. 05 THE SERVICE DESK AND MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
For a Major Incident Practice to respond quickly,
issue comms, mobilise the operation, and
effectively establish stakeholder confidence, we
are dependent on a quality Service Desk handover.
66

67. 05 THE SERVICE DESK AND MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
Never fix handovers during
a live Major Incident.
If a Major Incident Manager kicks back a Major Incident
due to a poor Service Desk handover, it increases
downtime, which is the opposite of the goal and purpose.
67

68. 05 THE SERVICE DESK AND MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
Tensions can rise during Major
Incidents but never forget that the
Service Desk and Major Incident Teams
are all working toward a unified goal.
68

69. 05 THE SERVICE DESK AND MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
Major Incident Managers are leaders.
Leaders don’t blame others when something goes wrong.
They review where and how they failed the team, then fix it.
69

70. 05 THE SERVICE DESK AND MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
The Major Incident Practice should provide all of its
knowledge and support to the Service Desk so that
it can continue to perform well during handovers.
70

71. 05 THE SERVICE DESK AND MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
Whilst Service Desks often have less experienced technical
staff, we expect them to have a high degree of knowledge
and experience when logging Major Incidents.
Major Incident professionals should consider this,
provide more support, and help them to develop.
71

72. 06
Personal brand

73. 06 PERSONAL BRAND
How you show up as a Major Incident Manager
and a leader sets the tone and expectations
for everyone involved in the Major Incident.
73

74. 06 PERSONAL BRAND
Your personal brand
communicates a lot.
How you behave, lead, and treat others, and your
appearance, professionalism, and integrity reveal
your character, which determines your interactions.
74

75. 06 PERSONAL BRAND
Personal brand is powerful.
It’s one of the few things you truly own.
So, invest in it, focus on developing it,
and reinforce it through consistent actions.
75

76. 06 PERSONAL BRAND
What does your personal
brand communicate?
Defining how you want others to perceive you
is the easy part. Consistently behaving in a way
that reinforces this over time is the key to people
trusting that your personal brand is genuine.
76

77. 06 PERSONAL BRAND
It is what you actually do.
Your authentic and unique image that can inspire others.
Your personal brand is not what you want it to be.
77

78. 07
Miscellaneous musings

79. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
Why (as an industry) do we keep defining Major Incidents
using priority matrixes or user volumes when we don’t
understand how they impact the business commercially?
Until we understand the business and its key commercial
activities and know which services and technology
support those activities, we cannot create a priority
matrix that has value.
79

80. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
In the Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident
Management®, the primary objective of Major
Incident management is to restore normal service
operation of business-critical services as quickly as
possible whilst maintaining stakeholder confidence.
80

81. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
A good critical thinker gathers relevant information, assesses
it effectively, and comes to well-reasoned conclusions.
They are open-minded and can identify and minimise bias
while communicating effectively with the team to solve
complex challenges.
81

82. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
In critical thinking, an argument is a
reason (or reasons) given to support
an idea, action, or theory.
This is different from the traditional
understanding of what an argument is.
An argument usually consists of one or
more premise(s) and then a conclusion.
82

83. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
Cyber Security tends to be more siloed than other
technical disciplines, so can feel more mysterious to
Major Incident Teams.
However, they are just another technical discipline in
terms of our behaviour as Major Incident Managers,
albeit with additional steps and considerations.
83

84. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
When hiring Major Incident Managers, skills and experience
are important, but so is cultural fit and the desire to perform.
So, here are 4 things to consider when hiring Major Incident Managers
1. Do they understand the role & how it all comes together?
3. Are they passionate about the role & committed to performing?
2. Do they have the skills & capabilities to perform the role?
4. Do they fit your specific team & company culture?
84

85. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
You can hire the most experienced, highly skilled
Major Incident Managers and provide great salaries.
But, if they have lost their passion & drive for the
role, they won’t perform.
85

86. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
When not engaged in active situations,
the military elite constantly train and develop.
As Major Incident Managers we need to think like them,
no matter how much experience we have.
During the downtime, we need to train, develop and be prepared.
86

87. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
Great training courses are extremely powerful but
we often make the mistake of only training once.
An effective Major Incident Manger’s mindset
views certification as the beginning of a learning
journey, rather than the end.
87

88. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
If stakeholders exhibit disruptive behaviours,
it is usually the fault of Major Incident Managers.
When we effectively manage stakeholder
confidence these behaviours resolve.
This is extremely empowering because it is
within our control to fix the underlying issues.
88

89. 07 MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
There are very few roles with the pace,
excitement, challenge, and responsibility
of Major Incident Management.
89

90. Products

91. PRODUCTS
MIM Director
®
MIM Expert
®
MIM Professional
®
91

92. Contact us

93. majorincidentmanagement.com
[email protected]
[phone]