What if the thing holding you back isn’t your ability but your approach? You’ve done the hard part: you’ve started the journey, maybe even passed your ITIL 4 Foundation exam. But somehow, your progress feels flat. No new responsibilities, no real improvement in how you manage services, and certainly no step forward on the ITIL Certification Path.
Could the real issue be hidden in how you’re applying what you’ve learned or not applying it at all? Before you chase the next level, it’s worth pausing to ask: are you unknowingly making a mistake that’s slowing you down? Let’s dive into it.
How This Mistake Slows Down Your ITIL Journey
Many professionals unintentionally hold themselves back by keeping ITIL knowledge confined to theory. The following four patterns are different ways this mistake shows up in practice:
Sticking Only to the Textbook
One of the biggest traps ITIL learners fall into is believing that theory equals mastery. You pass the Foundation exam, memorise the processes, and even complete some higher-level modules. But if your knowledge never moves beyond diagrams and terminology, you’ll find your growth stalling very quickly.
The ITIL textbook provides you with the map but not the terrain. In real projects, service requests don’t follow neat diagrams. Incident escalation might not align with what you read. The key is learning how to adapt the theory to match the messy, real-world dynamics of your team and business.
Reading about change enablement is helpful. But navigating it when stakeholders resist or when timelines clash with risk assessments? That’s where the actual learning starts.
Treating ITIL as a Solo Framework
It’s easy to view ITIL as something owned solely by the IT department. After all, it’s in the name Information Technology Infrastructure Library. But that narrow view limits its potential and your personal growth.
When you think in silos, you’ll find that your work begins to lose relevance to other teams. You may define services beautifully, but if the finance or sales team sees no value, they won’t engage. ITIL thrives in environments where the focus is on co-creating value, not just meeting internal KPIs.
ITIL 4 strongly emphasises aligning IT with business strategy. If your implementation remains internal, the service design won’t match what the business needs. You’ll be building efficient systems that solve the wrong problems.
Avoiding Real-world Practice
Certifications are helpful, but they’re only the beginning. If your only engagement with ITIL is through coursework or training sessions, then you’re keeping it theoretical. Growth comes from applying those concepts in your actual work environment and testing them.
You learn more from a single failed change implementation than from reading 20 chapters. Why? Because theory doesn’t teach you how people react under pressure, how to handle last-minute business demands, or how to recover from downtime.
Don’t wait for the “perfect” moment to start applying what you’ve learned. Start small, review how your team handles incidents or track the flow of service requests. Real insights surface when you observe how frameworks interact with your team’s behaviours, constraints, and strengths.
Underestimating the Value of Cross-Team Collaboration
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “ITIL is just for IT.” But in the best organisations, that couldn’t be further from the truth. When other departments understand and support your service management efforts, everything runs smoother. Unfortunately, many ITIL professionals isolate themselves from the broader organisation. This results in slow adoption, friction, and limited career growth.
When HR, customer service, and operations are part of the ITIL journey, they don’t just consume services, they help improve them. They start flagging recurring issues, offering suggestions, and becoming part of the solution rather than passive recipients.
Cross-functional collaboration helps you spot weaknesses early. For instance, if your incident logging system creates confusion for end users, someone from support or marketing might notice before you do. These quick feedback loops mean you can iterate faster and keep your ITIL processes relevant.
Conclusion
The biggest mistake that can slow your ITIL growth for years isn’t technical. It’s treating ITIL as something to study rather than something to live. Real progress happens when you experiment, collaborate, and keep evolving. A certification in ITIL offered by The Knowledge Academy can assist in your career and ensure your skills stay relevant in a changing world.
