16
Leadership Alignment
Leadership is critical to successfully implementing SAFe®, and effective Lean-Agile Leaders understand why an organization is adopting SAFe® and take responsibility for leading the change. Evidence from thousands of SAFe® implementations shows that, with engaged leadership, achieving better business results from new ways of working can happen very quickly. It also requires leaders to demonstrate the needed behaviors to be successful in the digital age and to be proficient in the practices of leading successful change.
Without the active involvement of leaders, a large-scale Agile transformation is far less likely to succeed. Leaders must invest in their change journey and proactively work to shift old mindsets and habits before they can help others do the same. Tera Allas, Will Fairbairn, and Elizabeth Foote reported that McKinsey & Company’s research found “transformations where leaders model the change themselves are more than four times more likely to succeed than transformations where they do not.” Leadership buy-in can help increase the chances of a successful transformation from 30% to 75% [3].
Organizations often begin their SAFe® journey without strong leadership support. They fall short of the desired improvements in business outcomes that justified the investment in SAFe®, meaning in many cases that the transformation stalls.
In this chapter, we will discuss the following topics:
- Moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset
- Leading by example
- Leading an Agile organization
- Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)
Moving from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset
Many leaders that we encounter have been in leadership positions for several years. They rely on the experience they have gained over the previous decades, which has served them well and allowed them to achieve a senior position within their organization. However, that experience was based on a different age of technology. Let’s consider two conversations with senior executives from two different organizations.
Story from the real world
I was talking to a senior airline executive who was of a certain age and was concerned that he was tasked with leading a digital transformation. He said, “I am digitally naive while 25% of my staff are under the age the age of 30 and are digitally native and I am expected to lead a digital transformation.”
He felt that his experience would put him at a disadvantage when in a position of leadership.
Conversely, consider a different conversation with the most senior person in a government organization who had lunch with the CEO of a major bank. During their lunch, they agreed that there were three key core ingredients to change:
- A transformed approach to partnerships
- An Agile approach to problem-solving, giving power and capability to those closest to the issue
- Most importantly, a learning culture including leadership, where those with the most influence must do as much, or more, learning than anyone else
The last point was critical; this senior leader realized that he had to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. But this is not common – the reverse is more often the case, as in the example of the initial reaction of the airline executive.
As Coaches, we want to encourage our leaders to attend a 2-day Leading SAFe® course, which is often met with the following type of response:
“You have clearly not read my badge; I am a very successful person, and I wouldn’t be where I am today if didn’t know a lot of stuff.”
Sound familiar? Some of what they know, which was right even 2 years ago, is now wrong. Senior leaders are aware of the need to change but they have largely been stuck in the past, relying on traditional managerial techniques and frameworks.
In addition, they do not want to invest time in learning – “I don’t have time for your 2-day course.”
One response from a very experienced consultant was, “If you are too busy, then so am I. Let me know when you have more time, and I will return.”
Now, if you are an internal consultant employed by the company, then this response might be career-limiting! A better response would be, “Surely, as a senior leader, you recognize that attending a Leading SAFe® course is a moral obligation so that you understand how you are asking your organization to change before inflicting that change upon the organization.”
That said, a 2-day class can still be a significant ask for a team of senior leaders. As a consequence, Scaled Agile, Inc. created, in conjunction with several seasoned practitioners, an executive workshop that can be delivered in half a day or so. If you are a SAFe® Practice Consultant (SPC) in good standing, then you can download this toolkit from SAFe® Studio.
Caution
This is not a substitute for Leading SAFe®; it is not the case that if you can’t commit to a 2-day class, then there is a half-day option. The executive workshop should be treated as an invitation to learn more and should be followed by a Leading SAFe® course.
Pro tip
There is a danger that you will deliver the executive workshop out of the box – that is, unchanged. While there is some excellent material within the workshop, our experience is that, when delivering it as a vanilla workshop, it won’t land 9 times out of 10 because it is not context-specific. If you want to have an impactful workshop, spend time doing some empathy interviews with the leaders that are going to attend the workshop to understand their challenges. Then, construct a workshop that specifically talks about these challenges. However, remember the rules of the toolkits:
- Permission to use the toolkits is granted to SAFe® certified members whose membership is in good standing and only for use as part of their SAFe® implementation.
- A member may reproduce, modify, use, and distribute handouts and templates of the material in hard copy or PDF format as necessary. However, the full toolkit itself may not be distributed to or used by anyone other than the member who downloaded it.
- A member may add slides and content unique to a specific context but such additions shall not change the meaning, purpose, or the original material. Removal of any trademarks, logos, or copyright notices is also prohibited.
In essence, you can add and delete slides but do not change any existing slides.
However, even a half-day workshop still might be a bridge too far. Therefore, the final option is to use the publicly available Introducing SAFe®, which can be downloaded from the Scaled Agile Framework website from Resources. If you only have 90 minutes to 2 hours, then this might be an option – again, enough to whet the appetite of the audience to learn more.
Education alone is not enough. One of my colleagues used to say, “Would you get on a plane if the pilot had only been on a course and maybe passed an exam?” Of course not – I would want to know that the pilot had spent some time practicing his/her craft under the watchful eye of a more experienced pilot. Education is important, but now, we need our leaders to start experiencing the practices for themselves. Let’s explore that next.
Leading by Example
Leading by example refers to the practice of setting a good example for others to follow, either through your actions or behavior. It is a leadership style that emphasizes setting a positive example for others to emulate, rather than simply giving instructions or commands. This can be an effective way to inspire and motivate others and can also help to build trust and credibility as a leader.
What are the behaviors that leaders should embrace to set the right example?
- Insatiable learning
- Authenticity
- Emotional Intelligence (EI)
- Courage
- Growing others
- Decentralized decision-making
If you are a Coach and perhaps contemplating delivering a Leading SAFe® class, you will find there is only one slide in lesson 6 on Leading By Example, with very little trainer guidance other than listing the six behaviors, accompanied by a very short description. So, in this section, we want to give you more of a narrative that you can use, list some of the benefits of each of the behaviors, and provide some practical advice on how to engender the behaviors with the leaders.
Insatiable Learning
This depicts how leaders engage in the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge and growth and how they encourage and support the same in others.
Insatiable Learning is important because it drives individuals to continuously seek out new knowledge and experiences, leading to personal and professional growth, improved problem-solving abilities, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Additionally, Insatiable Learning fosters innovation and creativity and can lead to advancements in various fields. Ultimately, Insatiable Learning is essential for success in a rapidly changing and competitive world.
Pro tip
A very simple technique is to create a leadership book club; in fact, what I have done is buy the books myself and hand them out individually to the leadership team. Try and select a book that will resonate with their situation. Then, set up a regular cadence to review the book in small increments – for example, a chapter a week. As a Coach, start creating a reading list yourself; practice what you preach!
Authenticity
This requires leaders to model the desired professional and ethical behaviors. By acting with honesty, integrity, and transparency, leaders are true to themselves and their beliefs.
Authenticity is important because it allows individuals to be true to themselves and their values, rather than pretending to be something or someone they’re not. When people are authentic, they are more likely to be genuine and trustworthy and build deeper and more meaningful relationships. Additionally, authenticity can lead to greater personal satisfaction and well-being, as well as improved mental and physical health.
In organizations, authenticity from leadership can also lead to better employee engagement and a more positive workplace culture.
Pro tip
Encourage your leaders to be honest with the team and not hide away from the real challenges the organization is facing, and then be open to feedback. I often find that leaders are fearful of openly declaring what they consider to be “bad news.” The reality is that if the leaders don’t share the challenges, then the team is, more often than not, aware and because you, as a leader, have not shared this with them, they draw conclusions that are normally much worse than they are! Treat your team as adults, not children.
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
This describes how leaders identify and manage their emotions and those of others through self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
EI is important because it helps individuals understand and manage their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. This can lead to a variety of benefits, both personally and professionally.
Some of the benefits of EI include the following:
- Improved communication: EI allows individuals to understand and respond to the emotions of others, which can lead to more effective communication and better relationships
- Leadership: EI is considered a key component of effective leadership, as leaders with high EI are better able to understand and respond to the needs of their team members
- Better decision-making: EI can help individuals make better decisions by considering the emotional impact of their choices on themselves and others
- Resilient: EI can also help leaders be more resilient in the face of stress and adversity, as well as achieve greater success in their personal and professional lives
In organizations, having a high level of EI among leadership and employees can lead to a more positive work culture, better teamwork, and better performance.
Pro tip
This is a hard one. However, something I have found effective is bringing some diversity and inclusion into the leadership team. I have seen and have been part of a leadership team where there are very similar traits among the leaders and a distinct lack of EI. Consider bringing someone that brings that EI diversity to the leadership team to create some balance.
Courage
This is essential for leaders to guide their organizations through the rapidly changing dynamics of the digital age. It requires leaders to embrace vulnerability, take appropriate risks, and engage in difficult but necessary conversations to challenge the status quo.
Courage is important for leaders in organizations because it allows them to make difficult decisions, take calculated risks, and stand up for their values and beliefs. It also enables leaders to address challenging situations and to communicate transparently with their teams, even in the face of criticism or opposition. Furthermore, courage is essential for leaders to drive change and innovation within their organizations, and to create a positive and inclusive workplace culture. With courage, leaders are better equipped to navigate uncertainty, embrace failure as a learning opportunity, and inspire their teams to reach new heights.
Pro tip
This is another hard one. A good tip for leaders to improve their courage in an organization is to practice self-reflection and self-awareness. This involves them regularly evaluating their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and gaining a deeper understanding of their values, strengths, and limitations. Another tip is to actively seek out new challenges and opportunities for growth, as this helps build confidence and resilience. Additionally, seeking out supportive relationships, such as a mentor or Coach, and being part of a supportive community can provide valuable encouragement and guidance as leaders navigate difficult situations. Finally, regularly engaging in self-care and stress management activities can also help leaders maintain their courage and well-being.
Growing Others
This encourages leaders to provide the personal, professional, and technical guidance and resources that each employee needs to assume increasing levels of responsibility and decision-making.
Growing Others is important because it helps them develop the skills and abilities of individuals, which can lead to a variety of benefits both personally and professionally.
Growing Others is important for the following reasons:
- Develops future leaders: By investing in the development of others, organizations can ensure that they have a strong pool of talented individuals to draw from when leadership positions become available
- Improves team performance: When team members are allowed to develop their skills and abilities, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated, which leads to improved team performance
- Builds a positive work culture: When individuals feel that they are being invested in and developed, they are more likely to feel valued and respected, which can lead to a more positive work culture
Growing Others is also a way to develop a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable society as it provides opportunities for underrepresented groups to learn and grow, as well as to achieve their full potential.
Pro tip
The best thing the leadership can do is commit to the Innovation and Planning (IP) Iteration. Not only do we set aside things for innovation, which is a key motivator for knowledge workers, but normally, time is also reserved for Continual Professional Development (CPD). This could be team-based (for example, a course) or individual self-directed learning (for example, reading).
Decentralized Decision-Making
This moves the authority for decisions to where the information is, prepares teams to make decentralized decisions by investing in their technical competence, and provides organizational clarity with decision guardrails.
This is the behavior that we find that leaders struggle with the most; to them, it feels like they are losing control. And yet, those leaders have recruited these employees that are bright and intelligent people but then treat them like kindergarten children.
Decentralized Decision-Making is important because it allows individuals and teams at all levels of an organization to make decisions, rather than relying solely on decisions made by leadership. This can lead to a variety of benefits:
- Faster decision-making: When decisions can be made at the lowest level of an organization, they can be made more quickly, as individuals and teams are closer to the issues at hand and don’t have to wait for approval from higher-ups
- Increased ownership and accountability: When individuals and teams are given the authority to make decisions, they are more likely to feel a sense of ownership over and accountability for the outcomes, which can lead to better performance and results
- Better problem-solving: Decentralized decision-making allows individuals and teams to identify and solve problems at the local level, which can lead to more effective problem-solving and improved performance
Decentralized Decision-Making is important because it allows for faster, more effective decision-making, increased ownership and accountability, better problem-solving, greater creativity and innovation, more engagement and motivation, and more effective and efficient use of the people.
Pro tip
There are two options – get your leaders to read Turn the Ship Around [1] by David Marquet or watch a YouTube video called Greatness, which is a 10-minute summary of the book. I find that this is extremely powerful with the leadership team when talking about decentralized decision-making: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqmdLcyES_Q.
Understanding these behaviors is all well and good, but how do we get our leaders to practice these leadership behaviors?
Pro tip
Our experience is that you need the leadership team to operate as an Agile Team. That way, they can start to practice what they have been taught in a psychologically safe environment surrounded by their peers. We normally start with an education piece (see the Moving from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset section), followed by a series of follow-up workshops, Coaching, and support. Being able to practice operating as an Agile Team will better help them lead an Agile organization, as well as demonstrate the behavior we have discussed in this section.
So, let’s have a look at what it takes to lead an Agile organization.
Leading an Agile Organization
As the speed of business increases exponentially, many leaders find themselves in an awkward position: they need to fundamentally change how they do business, but they are unsure of how to approach such a monumental undertaking. The Pandemic and all its effects have greatly accelerated what was already a dizzying situation.
The eight steps to implementing change were first outlined in John Kotter’s 1996 bestselling book, Leading Change [2]. They have since become the foundation of countless successful transformations in organizations of all sizes across the globe. They are acknowledged as foundational principles by most change management experts.
The eight steps are as follows:
- Establish a sense of urgency
- Create a powerful guiding coalition
- Develop the vision and strategy
- Communicate the vision
- Empower employees for broad-based action
- Generate short-term wins
- Consolidate gains and produce more wins
- Anchor new approaches in the culture
These eight ideas are the responsibility of the executive and senior management.
The purpose of this section is not to dive deep into all eight steps — that’s what the original book and its many follow-ups are for. We are going to focus on the steps and particularly on the aspects where we feel many leaders and transformations have the greatest opportunity to improve.
Step 2 – Creating a Powerful Guiding Coalition
A critical and powerful step in Leading Change is creating a powerful guiding coalition. Since it’s so vital, and so many organizations get it wrong, this is where we’ll be spending the most time.
When discussing the guiding coalition, Kotter uses the analogy of an engine in a vehicle. If we can imagine that the organization is a vehicle and transformational change is the destination, then the guiding coalition is the engine that powers the vehicle’s movement.
SAFe®’s Imperfect Guiding Coalition
In the parlance of SAFe®, this coalition has three parts:
- SPCs
- Training Lean-Agile leaders
- Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE)
Unfortunately, this rubric often falls short when attempting to establish a powerful guiding coalition in organizations.
For one thing, the LACE is rarely fully understood, and it requires a lot of explanation and solutioning to get right. This confusion is reflected in the many names it goes by across various organizations:
- Agile CoE
- Agile Working Group
- Lean-Agile Transformation Team
- Learning and Improvement Centre
The LACE is a small team of people dedicated to implementing the Lean-Agile way of working, but it’s important to note that many of their responsibilities are shared with numerous SPCs who may or may not be regular members of the LACE.
As a result, the responsibilities of various parts of SAFe®’s guiding coalition overlap, often creating confusion, inefficiency, and lack of cohesion. These “engines” aren’t tuned up and running smoothly, so they often fail to provide sufficient forward momentum for the “vehicle.”
SAFe®’s Guiding Coalition Lacks Power
As Kotter outlines, we need a “powerful guiding coalition.” That means putting together a group of people with enough power to lead change; a powerful force that will be able to sustain the process to develop the vision, communicate it, eliminate key obstacles, and more. Low-credibility committees often run on empty.
SAFe® suggests that a senior C-level leader should act as the LACE Product Manager. Is this enough? Kotter says otherwise:
An Evolved take on the Guiding Coalition
After years of experience working with organizations undergoing massive change, our view on the sufficiently “powerful guiding coalition” has evolved. Like SAFe®, it has three elements:
- An Executive Action Team (EAT)
- A Change Team (that is, the LACE)
- Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) – a term more familiar to a UK audience – or External Advisors (EAs)
The EAT
The term EAT works well to describe this first element of the guiding coalition:
- Executives are people that have positions of power and proven leadership. And because they are senior people, we rightly expect that they will only fulfill a part-time role.
- The EAT is an action team, not an inaction team. They are focused on taking decisive actions to move the process of change forward continually.
- To succeed, they need to operate as an effective team. The lack of cohesion and the inefficiencies that often plague SAFe® based coalitions can – and must – be avoided.
The EAT’s responsibilities include the following:
- Establishing the intent and outcomes of the transformation in business terms
- Transforming Epic governance, including the approval and prioritization of transformation Epics and validating their delivered benefits
- Establishing organizational KPIs
- Communicating all of these things
- Removing systemic and organizational impediments
Story from the real world
One real-life example of an effective EAT consists of five senior people that are cross-functional and cover the length and breadth of the change. They meet every week for 30 minutes to approve new change experiments (see The Change Team section), review experiments in progress, and remove any impediments. These new experiments are socialized with the EAT before every meeting; these meetings are facilitated by an experienced Coach.
The Change Team
The Change Team is where the rubber hits the road. They are the bridge between the EAT and the actual transformation. These are the people dedicated to driving the transformation – much as SAFe®’s LACE is described – but everyone understands what the Change Team does.
Their responsibilities include the following:
- Acting as an exemplary Agile Team helping run the change experiments
- Coaching and supporting the EAT to fulfill its role within the guiding coalition
- Facilitating the operation of the guiding coalition, including managing and driving the portfolio’s flow
- Providing Coaching and training to key Stakeholders and teams
- Fostering Communities of Practice (CoP)
- Communicating progress
- Implementing Lean-Agile focus days with guest speakers, and presenting internal case studies — Agile briefings
- Promoting continuing Lean-Agile education
- Extending Lean-Agile practices to other areas of the company
In model organizations we have worked with, the Change Team consists of Coaches and SMEs from the organization; the latter embeds a new way of working.
It is important to state that depending on the nature and size of the transformation, multiple Change Teams may be required. In that case, running the Change Teams as an ART should be considered as a way to align the change activities.
Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) or External Advisors (EAs)
The term NED is something that the UK market will recognize, but it may not translate across other countries, so the alternative, EA, expresses the same thing. It is very easy for the EAT to operate in an echo chamber, so NEDs provide external thinking and critical feedback, acting as a conscience for the EAT.
These individuals can be drawn from the following fields:
- Someone from a part of the same organization that is showing transformed benefits
- Someone from a similar organization that epitomizes the transformation (preferably from the same industry)
- Someone from a different organization that is going through the transformation (possibly from a different industry)
- An experienced consultant who understands what a good transformation looks like
This combination of elements – when populated with experienced, enthusiastic participants and supported by the larger organization – is in the best position to effectively guide change at an organizational scale.
I would expect the NED to regularly attend the EAT meetings to provide an independent perspective on the organization’s transformation, performance, and risk management, and to bring outside expertise and mentorship to the EAT. By fulfilling these responsibilities, NEDs can help to ensure that the company is operating in the best interests of its Stakeholders and is positioned for long-term success.
Other Important Steps to Implement Organizational Change
Now, let’s focus briefly on other important steps outlined in Leading Change and what organizations with a powerful guiding coalition in place should be focusing on.
Steps 3 and 4 – Developing and Communicating the Vision and Strategy
With all change initiatives, it is vital to define the purpose – the vision for the result of the change – and then encapsulate it in a set of Strategic Themes expressed as Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). This work is done by the EAT with input from the Change Team and NEDs.
Once an overarching Vision has been established and the Strategic Themes have been designed, all future transformational activities will be evaluated against these benchmarks to determine their feasibility, sustainability, viability, desirability, and priority. That way, the work towards the change remains value-based and aligned with the established end state the organization is striving for.
To be of value to the entire organization, the Vision and Strategic Themes must be effectively communicated. Otherwise, as change begins rolling out, individuals will not understand the “why” behind uncomfortable actions they’re being asked to take. This is a recipe for pushback and eventual failure.
People often under-communicate, failing to provide sufficient information to engage or create buy-in. Or they send out too much information, leaving people unwilling or unable to absorb it. Inconsistent messaging can be a problem as well.
Generally speaking, the best option is to go visual – a picture paints a thousand words and it is more engaging without overstaying its welcome.
Communicating the vision and strategy is a big part of empowering employees to take action in support of change, but more is required.
Collecting Ideas
Good ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s necessary to have a mechanism for capturing these ideas – a funnel where all new ideas are welcome, and contributors can be confident their ideas will be fairly considered. Many tools can work well to collect these ideas, from Sharepoint sites to Google Forms. A link to the established tool should regularly be made visible to the organization.
Evaluating Ideas
Of course, some ideas will have potential, while others will not. Ideas may be rejected because they are not aligned with the Strategic Themes or are not feasible, viable, desirable, or sustainable for other reasons.
Incorporating Epic Hypothesis Statements
Those that pass this initial review will then progress to reviewing where we create a one-page Epic Hypothesis Statement (EHS). This tool defines the idea and the OKRs that could be used to validate progress if it were to be pursued. This information can be valuable both in reviewing the idea further and in creating experiments, should it be approved for implementation.
Pitching the Idea to the EAT
The person will then pitch the EHS to the EAT. This isn’t carried out like an episode of Shark Tank (US) or Dragon’s Den (UK); it is more for alignment, allocating skilled people, and removing the key obstacles. If approved, it will be prioritized in a backlog.
Step 6 – Generating Short-Term Wins
Sustainable positive change occurs slowly and steadily, not in massive fits and starts. That’s why, when work is done to implement Epics outlined on the Portfolio Kanban, it’s set up in the form of small experiments.
“Small” may mean a change is first implemented in one team or department, with a limited scope or application. It also always runs for a set period – usually for no more than 3 months. That is sufficient to evaluate its efficacy against the OKRs, but not so long that it adversely affects long-term productivity or impacts other departments too severely.
The progress of these experiments is regularly reported back to the EAT. The Change Team will help run these experiments with the necessary input from the EAT.
If the experiment fails, the idea can be re-evaluated and rewritten or rejected. If a change experiment succeeds, then it can be prioritized to be scaled up and rolled out across the organization and embedded into the new way of working. These decisions are made by the EAT and their decisions on prioritization dictate when the change will be implemented company-wide. These change experiments can be run with a small Change Team, but when they need to be rolled out across the organization, there is a need to scale up the Change Team.
Step 7 – Consolidating Gains and Producing More Wins
The small experiments are where new ideas are gestated and, if successful, where short-term wins are generated. If adopted, they instigate change across the organization, which constantly consolidates the gains. Many organizations find that a series of weekly 1-hour Agile briefings from external experts and those in the organization that have successfully adopted a change can go a long way to consolidating gains. It’s a great chance to celebrate those wins and build support for future transformational efforts!
Step 8 – Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture
The last step is to anchor new approaches in the culture because culture change comes last, not first. If you want to change the culture, you have to change habits and behaviors, and to do that, you have to change the ways of working. The only people that make those systemic and organizational changes are the leadership.
Once you make those organizational changes, you start to affect the habits and behaviors, which, in turn, leads to cultural change.
Caution
Beware of cultural entropy; if you weed a garden, the weeds disappear, but if you stop weeding, the weeds will grow back. This is the same as culture change – if we don’t anchor the changes, then it is very likely that the organization will slip back into its old ways of working.
This is where the Agile Program Management Office (APMO) is key in supporting the change but, more importantly, embedding change within the organization. One of the changes in SAFe® 6.0 was the option to redesign the traditional PMO to a Value Management Office (VMO). VMO primarily focuses on delivering value, strategic alignment, and benefits realization while conversely, an APMO concentrates on promoting and supporting the adoption of Agile methodologies and principles to enhance collaboration, adaptability, and iterative delivery. For this reason, we have decided the stay with the term APMO because it is more aligned with the activities for supporting change.
Pro tip
Don’t ignore your APMO; engage it from the start, educate it in Lean-Agile thinking, and then create a DevOps mentality to change whereby the Change Team and the APMO work together across a cross-functional team, running change experiments and then instigating across the organization rather than throwing the change initiative over the fence to APMO.
Figure 16.1 is a prototypical Kanban board, which can be used as a great starting point to visualize and manage the flow of change initiatives and directly corresponds to the steps detailed in the preceding sections:
Figure 16.1 – A Change Kanban (© Cprime Inc)
In SAFe® 6.0, the competency for Continuous Learning Culture (CLC) has been moved and now anchors the bottom of the framework, along with leadership. Why? We are positing that it will be the new management paradigm for the future. Therefore, it makes sense for us to discuss this alongside leadership alignment.
A Continuous Learning Culture (CLC)
A CLC is an organizational culture that prioritizes and encourages ongoing learning and development for all employees. This type of culture is characterized by the following:
- A focus on lifelong learning: Employees are encouraged to continuously develop their skills and knowledge throughout their careers, rather than only focusing on training at the beginning of their tenure. You will notice that this is a similar behavior that we encourage in our leaders as well.
- A culture of experimentation and innovation: Employees are encouraged to experiment and take risks, and to learn from their failures as well as their successes.
- Access to learning opportunities: Employees are provided with access to a wide range of learning opportunities, such as workshops, training programs, mentoring, and online resources. Leaders often say, “What if I Train all my employees and then they leave because they are better qualified?” I say, “What if we don’t Train them and they stay?” When employees feel that their learning and development are valued and supported, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated, which can lead to improved retention rates.
A CLC is important for an organization for several reasons:
- Enhancing skills and knowledge: Continuous learning helps employees to develop new skills and knowledge, which can increase their productivity and effectiveness. This can also help them to take on new roles and responsibilities within the organization.
- Innovation and creativity: A CLC can help to promote innovation and creativity within the organization. Employees who are encouraged to learn and experiment are more likely to come up with new ideas and solutions to problems.
- Adapting to change: In today’s fast-paced business environment, organizations need to be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. A CLC can help employees to stay up to date with new technologies and trends and adapt to changes in the marketplace.
- Retaining employees: Employees who feel that they are growing and developing within an organization are more likely to stay with that organization. A CLC can help to increase employee engagement and retention.
- Improving organizational performance: A CLC can help to improve organizational performance by increasing employee engagement, productivity, and innovation. This can help organizations to achieve their goals more effectively and to stay competitive in their industry.
But how do you foster and create a CLC?
Creating a CLC requires a deliberate effort to prioritize learning, provide opportunities for learning, encourage experimentation, recognize and reward learning, create a learning community, provide access to resources, and measure and evaluate the impact of learning initiatives. By doing so, organizations can foster a culture of learning that supports the development of their employees and the long-term success of the organization.
In summary, a CLC is an organizational culture that prioritizes and encourages ongoing learning and development for all employees. It is characterized by a focus on lifelong learning, a culture of experimentation and innovation, access to learning opportunities, support for self-directed learning, and recognition and rewards for learning.
Summary
We make no apology for this being a long chapter because leadership is critical to any change initiative, especially if you are looking to implement SAFe®.
In this chapter, we looked at the three dimensions of aligning leadership:
- Helping them move from a fixed to a growth mindset and adopting a personal lifelong learning culture where the leadership needs to do as much, if not more, learning than anyone else.
- Leading by example, whereby they practice what they have been taught – for example, by getting the leadership to operate as an Agile team. This allows them to experience what it means to be Agile and model the right behaviors.
- Leading the change by drawing on the seminal work by John Kotter and his book, Leading Change.
Finally, we concluded with the CLC, which we believe could be the new management paradigm for the 21st century.
Further reading
- Marquet, L. David (2013). Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders. Penguin Publishing Group.
- Kotter, John P. (2012). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press.
- The economic case for reskilling in the UK: How employers can thrive by boosting workers’ skills: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-economic-case-for-reskilling-in-the-uk-how-employers-can-thrive-by-boosting-workers-skills