“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
Whatever the role you are playing or how well you must be taking your responsibilities, but ‘change is eternal’ and with change, it comes learning. To sustain in this competitive and continuously changing time of business it becomes necessary to acquire new skills and knowledge. Even in agile the importance of learning is understood and implemented.
The third step in implementing the roadmap is all about training the executives, managers, and leaders. To create a guiding union the second step ‘Train lean-agile change agent’ of implementing roadmap has suggested three points:
Train lean-agile agent as program consultant of SAFe
Train executives, managers, and other leaders
Charter lean-agile center of excellence
The second step precisely described how the change agent acting as SPC will beneficial in transforming the organization. But that step only is not sufficient for the guidance of the coalition. It also requires other factors, of which second part of ‘training the executives, managers, and leaders we will learn in this article.
The effortless implementation of any change within organizations depends totally on the capability of leaders. Stronger the leadership, easier the implementation of change. Some leaders provide sponsorship by involving LACE. Whereas, others will directly implement SAFe or will guide, manage, and influence the individuals in transformation. Along with these roles they are responsible for launching ARTs means that they work to avoid impediments rising in governance, culture, and practices of the company. The stakeholders always require the knowledge to lead the implementation rather than following it.
Exhibit Lean-Agile Mindset
As we have learned earlier, ‘the first step to change, is a mindset’ also applies in the implementation of the roadmap. To effectively implement the roadmap all leaders, managers, and executives must adopt the lean-agile mindset. This mindset includes two important points that are:
Thinking Agile- The SAFe House of the lean icon represents most of the lean thinking. The house represents 6 main key constructs. The roof represents delivering value as a goal. The four pillars of the house icon present the support to the roof as it represents respect to people and culture, flow, improvement, and innovation. Lean leadership provides the foundation to the house.
Embracing agility-The skills, capabilities, and aptitude of agile teams and leaders play a crucial role in building the SAFe. The agile manifesto provides the value system to guide the practices introduced in the mainstream of development as there is no defined way of agile methods.
These mindsets of agile will provide the leaders with easy success. But if the mindset of agile is only in words and not actions then the result it will provide will be reversible and teams will resist the implementation of change. So the lean-agile mindset in actions will give the economic and personal benefits of SAFe.
Apply Lean-Agile Principle
Understanding and reinforcing value is the guiding path to the successful integration of SAFe. To achieve this leaders are expected to understand, adopt and apply 10 principles of SAFe which are as follows
1. Take economic outlook
2. Adopt system thinking
3. Accept variability and reserve options
4. With fast, integrated learning cycle creates an increment
5. Base milestone on independent evolution on the working systems.
6. Manage queue length, decrease the batch size and visualize and limit the WIP
7. Adopt cadence and align with cross-domain planning
8. Decentralize decision making
9. Organize keeping value at the center
10. Utilize the essential motivation of knowledge workers
Learning New Skills
Sometimes learning these new skills of adapting mindset and applying principles will be challenging. Then the questions arise that how to learn these fresh skills? A training to learn these skills is also designed in SAFe called a ‘leading lean-agile enterprise with a scaled agile framework.
This course will provide with the learning of
Lean-Agile practices and principles
Leadership values of managing new generation knowledge workers.
Leading the change
Exploring lean portfolio management
Form team and technical agility
Create a solution with agile product delivery
Thriving with business agility in this digital age
Becoming the lean-agile leader
This course provides the exams and tests to learn about your knowledge acquired and provide a way towards the SAFe community platform by certifying your skills.
Moving Ahead
“Change is the end result of all learning” and where there is change there is progress. These steps are just the starting of the SAFe. Learning is the only way of fulfilling the benefits you will achieve with Safe. To complete this guiding coalition along with learned three steps one more step is required that is ‘ create the lean-agile center of excellence’.
About Advance Agility
We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium and large organization across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients, move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting human centric approach to business agility. Embracing the change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitor.
Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe Implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagilty.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are a good trainer or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.
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