Values and Principles

Last week I participated in a SAFe SPC 4.0 training. I was already somewhat familiar with the framework after previously attending a Leading SAFe training. After that I have been acting as a Release Train Engineer and heading a System Team for the past couple of years. But never the less, there's always room for learning more and the training was really good. Jennifer Fawcett has an overwhelming amount of experience and she's also really inspiring teacher. Maarit Laanti also shared interesting experiences from her past. I think these 'war stories' are always the most exciting content in any training.

My interpretation of SAFe is a map or definition of a complex system. Or a collection of practices that can be utilized to bring structure to an organization. So I don't consider it as a silver bullet or a project model that should be fitted 100%. And then again, this is just one possible view out of many. Reader is welcome to use SAFe in any suitable way.

But please remember that SAFe and other scaling frameworks are just frameworks. What is really important is the people and interactions that take place within the framework. I find also values and principles to be more important than specific practices.

SAFe Core Values include

• Built-in Quality
• Alignment
• Transparency and
• Program Execution

If you find for example transparency to be sore topic in your organization, then SAFe won't help you out much. In the end you might come to a conclusion that 'SAFe is broken', although the organizational dysfunction has just been uncovered by the transparency. I think the same has been pointed out about Scrum.

Then the SAFe House of Lean contains the following pillars:

• Respect for People and Culture
• Flow
• Innovation
• Relentless Improvement

As we are all unique, we have different biases. I for one emphasise the first and last pillar most. For me one of the most important things is that people respect each other. This regardless of gender, race or title. Constructive disagreement is ok. It even drives innovation. But respect and trust should be in place. Then you can take a humble look in the mirror and start the relentless improvement.

I'm not going to repeat points of Agile Manifesto here, but I'd like to point out a bit less known framework. Trust, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration are the corner stones of deep leadership. It was taught in Finnish army's leadership training and it made a lasting mark on me.

Sometimes we get lost in silos. It is easy to mentally divide people to 'us' and 'them'. Seeing the other person as a human being with hopes and dreams may help to respect the other person. And remember, even though you think something someone else is doing makes no sense, it probably makes perfect sense to him or her. Our past environments and experiences have molded us and we all see world a bit differently.

My own management/leadership methodology is based on making things easier for others. Instead of sub-optimizing things for yourself, try to make things better for others. Do not make others wait. And increase transparency as much as you can. When everyone works according to this very simple rule, the combined results can be huge.