ITIL4-CDS Create, Deliver and Support Practice Question
An organization wants to foster a high-performing IT culture based on trust, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Which TWO of the following behaviors or practices are essential for cultivating this culture? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often include punitive measures or rigid hierarchical approvals, missing that high-performing IT cultures rely strictly on psychological safety and cross-functional collaboration.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Conducting blameless post-incident reviews to identify systemic weaknesses and process gaps without assigning personal fault.
Cultivating a high-performing culture requires psychological safety and collaborative problem-solving, such as blameless post-incident reviews and cross-functional teaming. These practices encourage experimentation, knowledge sharing, and proactive service improvement, which are critical competencies in the ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support module.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Conducting blameless post-incident reviews to identify systemic weaknesses and process gaps without assigning personal fault.
Why this is correct
Blameless post-incident reviews separate human error from systemic weakness, so teams surface process gaps and improvement actions without fear of personal fault. This directly cultivates the trust and continuous-improvement behaviours the stem requires for a high-performing IT culture.
- ✗
Enforcing strict departmental silos to ensure that individual teams maintain exclusive ownership and control over their specialized technical domains.
Why it's wrong here
Silos restrict cross-team information flow and shared accountability, directly opposing the collaboration and trust the scenario requires. It is tempting because clear ownership and domain expertise genuinely reduce ambiguity, and silos would be the correct choice where regulatory separation or strict segregation of duties demands isolated technical control.
- ✓
Establishing cross-functional squads where development, operations, and security collaborate continuously throughout the service lifecycle.
Why this is correct
Cross-functional squads break down development, operations, and security silos, embedding continuous collaboration across the service lifecycle. This structural practice directly builds the trust and shared ownership the stem identifies as essential to a high-performing IT culture.
- ✗
Punishing individuals publicly for operational errors to deter careless behavior and enforce strict compliance with standard operating procedures.
Why it's wrong here
Public punishment suppresses the psychological safety that underpins trust and continuous improvement, driving error concealment rather than learning. It is tempting because deterrence and compliance enforcement have a place in regulated operational environments, where disciplinary consequences for wilful procedural breaches are genuinely warranted.
- ✗
Relying entirely on annual performance appraisals conducted by senior management to evaluate team productivity and direct all improvements.
Why it's wrong here
Annual top-down appraisals give feedback too infrequently and too remotely to steer iterative improvement, and they bypass the team-level ownership that high-performing cultures require. They are tempting because formal appraisal cycles remain a legitimate governance mechanism for pay, promotion and individual accountability decisions.
About these practice questions
This ITIL4-CDS question is part of Courseiva's 155-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PeopleCert/AXELOS exam blueprint
This ITIL4-CDS practice question is part of Courseiva's free PeopleCert/AXELOS certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ITIL4-CDS exam.