What should be applied to facilitate thinking and working holistically within organizations?

Applying guiding principles is essential for promoting holistic thinking and working within organizations. In the context of ITIL 4, guiding principles serve as foundational rules and recommendations that help organizations make better decisions and navigate challenges. They encourage collaboration, the breaking down of silos, and the fostering of a comprehensive and coherent approach to delivering services.

By implementing these principles, organizations can align their strategies and operations, considering all aspects of service management, including technology, people, processes, and value creation. This holistic approach ensures that every element of the organization works towards shared objectives and that the interdependencies between various teams and roles are recognized and managed effectively.

Other options, such as improvement iterations, agile methods, and Goodhart's Law, have their own specific roles and benefits, but they do not fundamentally emphasize the holistic perspective that guiding principles inherently provide within the ITIL framework. Improvement iterations focus primarily on the incremental enhancements of processes, while the agile method is a specific approach to project management that emphasizes flexibility and responsiveness. Goodhart's Law is a principle related to measurement and can indicate a risk in management practices, but it doesn't directly promote holistic thinking in the same way guiding principles do.