ITIL Updated ITIL-4-Foundation Exam Questions and Answers by siena

You need to use all of your resources as effectively and efficiently as you can. This means that you should automate wherever you can, and use people only for tasks that can’t be automated. It also means that you need to think carefully about what you can automate and about the circumstances where only a person will do; and about simplifying those processes you do decide to automate to eliminate wasteful or inefficient steps.

You should always optimize the work BEFORE you automate it, as automating something that is inefficient or ineffective may just result in you doing the wrong thing faster!

https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-7-guiding-principles-of-itil-4-practical-advice-to-help-you-make-decisions

A guiding principle is a recommendation that provides universal and enduring guidance to an organization, which applies in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-guiding-principles/#:~:text=A%20guiding%20principle%20is%20a,of%20work%2C%20or%20management%20structure .

In order to be aligned to customer outcomes and expectations, SLM requires focus and effort to engage and listen to the requirements, issues, concerns, and daily needs of customers:

• Engagement is needed to understand and confirm the actual ongoing needs and requirements of customers, not simply what is interpreted by the service provider or has been agreed several years before. ITIL4 refers to value as being co-created, since it needs the input and validation of customers.
• Listening is important as a relationship-building and trust-building activity, to show customers that they are valued and understood. This helps to move the provider away from always being in ‘solution mode’ and to build new, more constructive partnerships. Each customer is unique, and the service provider must not have a one-size-fits-all approach.

The activities of engaging and listening provide a great opportunity to build improved relationships and to focus on what really needs to be delivered. They also give service delivery staff an experience-based understanding of the day-to-day work that is done with their technology, enabling them to deliver a more business-focused service. When the customer is engaged and listened to, they feel valued and their perception of the service and service management activities improves.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-level-management/

It is important to understand the difference in these terms not just for clarity, but because outputs are much easier to measure than outcomes.

• Outputs are nearly always quantitative, with data available to show whether these have been delivered. Outputs are easy to report on and to validate. There is no grey area.
• Outcomes are more challenging to verify because they are both qualitative and quantitative. Whether your outcomes have been achieved will rely, to a great extent, on the perception of the people who receive the service. Perceptions are not easy to measure or report on, but it is essential you find a way to do so.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/outcomes-vs-outputs/