3 things I learned about the service organisation

I just read The Service Organisation (2023) by Kate Tarling. It explores how to improve outcomes for users by fully reorienting your organisation around the services it delivers.

Here are three things I learned about becoming a service organisation:

1. Define Your Services

Create a shared language for the services your organisation delivers.

It’s essential to make services visible by naming them and consistently describing their component parts. A good starting point is to create a service list that distinguishes between main and supporting services. Once this list is established, you can map the individual stages within each service, making it easier to measure performance and plan for iterative improvements.

Being intentional about definitions helps build a shared understanding of the current state and provides a common language to explore opportunities for improvement in greater depth.

2. Measure Services from Multiple Angles

Use data to build a holistic view of service performance.

A key aspect of becoming a service organisation is having a robust approach to measuring performance against meaningful metrics. It’s important to define what “good” looks like and clearly articulate what each service aims to achieve. Performance indicators might include time to complete a task, error rates, avoidable effort, and friction.

While statistical data is valuable for tracking capacity and demand, qualitative research provides the context needed to fully understand issues. The goal is to consider multiple indicators together to make balanced judgments about whether a service is delivering successful outcomes.

3. Establish Whole-Service Leadership

Structure the organisation and define strategy around services.

This involves rethinking how organisations are governed and directed to better achieve outcomes for users. Instead of individual teams setting direction in silos, whole-service leadership brings everyone involved in service delivery into the development of a cohesive strategy and shared vision.

The shared vision should be widely communicated, constructively challenged, and iterated. Tough decisions about priorities must be made to avoid spreading resources too thinly.

Bold changes to organisational structure and governance are necessary to meaningfully improve an organisation’s ability to deliver modern services for the people who need them.

This book is a must-read for any service designer and will also resonate with anyone involved in transforming large organisations. It feels like it's the start of a conversation, and more needs to be done to bring the principles of The Service Organisation to life for those eager to implement them.