In ITIL 4, the guiding principle “Keep it simple and practical” advises organizations to:

Always use the minimum number of steps necessary to achieve objectives

Eliminate activities that do not create value

Avoid over-complication and unnecessary work

This principle explicitly supports removing unnecessary processes, steps, or documentation that do not contribute to value. That is exactly what the question describes as “the elimination of unnecessary work,” so A is correct.

Why the others are not correct in this context:

B. Think and work holistically focuses on seeing the organization as an integrated system and considering end-to-end value creation, not specifically on eliminating unnecessary work.

C. Start where you are emphasizes using and understanding existing practices, capabilities, and data before creating something new, but it does not directly focus on removing unnecessary work.

D. Progress iteratively with feedback promotes working in small, manageable iterations and learning from feedback; it is about how to approach change, not specifically about eliminating unnecessary work.

Therefore, the guiding principle that proposes eliminating unnecessary work is “Keep it simple and practical”, making A the correct answer.