Understanding SAFe’s Core Values
SAFe is a system for achieving business agility based on highly respected bodies of knowledge: Agile, Lean, systems thinking, DevOps, and value stream management, to name a few. Their relevance to business agility has been proven through the successful adoption of these practices by the world’s largest organizations. These comprehensive success patterns make SAFe broad, deep, and scalable. In this blog, we are going to take a close look at the core values of SAFe.
What are the SAFe core values?
At it’s core, SAFe places the highest value on four deeply held beliefs: alignment, transparency, respect for people and relentless improvement.
These tenets help guide the behaviors and actions of everyone participating in a SAFe portfolio. Those in positions of authority can help the rest of the organization embrace these ideals by exemplifying these values in their words and actions.
The SAFe core values are illustrated in Figure 1 and described in the following sections.
Core Value 1: Alignment
A misaligned car might give you some serious trouble when you wonder about it. Just like that, a misaligned company can develop serious problems. They can be hard to steer and pretty often don’t respond well to changes in direction. Even if it is clear in everyone’s mind where they want to head, it is very unlikely they will ever get there.
The scenario explained above stands true for any organization adopting SAFe as their new way of working. If you have a close look at SAFe principle #9, it states that many decisions in Lean-Agile is decentralized to deliver value in the shortest lead time. In case decisions start pulling the organization in different directions, it will result in significant delays and quality concerns.
The solution is to provide clear, consistent alignment from the top of the enterprise through every level of SAFe, all the way to each individual contributor. Value delivery with speed and quality can consistently be achieved when everyone is aligned.
The following are some specific ways to create and maintain alignment in SAFe:
1. Communicate the mission, vision and strategy
Keeping the organization’s vision, mission and strategy constantly present is a very good way to initiate alignment.
2. Connect strategy to execution
The next step towards alignment is to make sure everyone in the SAFe portfolio aligns their work to the most important things to the organization.
3. Speak with a common language
Inconsistency in how the organization describes important roles, processes and events makes alignment difficult to achieve. SAFe provides a common language for the organization which helps in maintaining a common view of the work and the resulting solutions.
4. Constantly check for understanding
SAFe events like iteration planning, backlog refinement, PI planning, ART syncs and SAFe artifacts like backlogs, team boards, ART boards are some tools which are great in driving alignment in the organization. Face-to-Face conversations are ideal in helping check for understanding.
5. Understand your customer
SAFe promotes continuous exploration with customer centricity and design thinking to gather inputs and perspectives from diverse stakeholders and information sources to ensure that the items in the backlogs are aligned with the most important voice of all… the customer.
Core Value 2: Transparency
Solution development can be a pretty tricky and complex affair. Things might go wrong or may not work out exactly like it was planned. Without transparency, facts are hidden and further decisions may be compromised.
Transparency is dependent upon trust. And trust can only exist when everyone can rely on others to act with integrity, particularly when the situation may be difficult. The following actions can help build a culture of transparency and trust in the SAFe enterprise.
1. Create a trust based enviroment
Trust requires action, not just a feeling. People at every level of the organization must be willing to trust others and be trustworthy themselves.
2. Communicate directly, honestly and openly
Problems cannot be solved if they are hidden. In a trust-based environment, information is shared without embellishment or blame to resolve issues as quickly and effectively as possible.
3. Turn mistakes into learning moments
People often learn more from their mistakes than from their successes, but this is effective only when those mistakes can be acknowledged without fear of retribution or punishment.
4. Visualize work
Making all work visible is a key step towards transparency. Tools such as Kanban boards, ART boards, PI objectives support the aim of keeping work visible and accessible to all.
5. Provide ready access to needed information
Difficult information to find might have the same impact as to intentionally hidden information. True transparency requires that information is easily accessible to all who need it and that the location and means of access are well known.
Core Value 3: Respect for People
A Lean-Agile approach doesn’t implement itself or perform any real work. For that matter, no framework or no approach is actually going to implement itself or going to do any of the work.
In reality, it’s people who do all the work, and people receive all the value from the work. Since people are the focal point of how enterprises create value with SAFe, respect for people must be considered in every aspect of the new way of working.
Respect is a basic human need. When treated with respect, people are unleashed to evolve their practices and contribute their creativity. Conversely, people cannot commit to another person, their teams, or their organizations if they feel a lack of respect. When disrespect is widespread and tolerated, it creates a toxic work environment, poor performance, and a high attrition rate.
The following suggestions provide just a few ways to cultivate a culture of respect for people in an organization.
1. Hold precious what it is to be Human
This is literally the meaning for the core value as described in Lean. To explain it further, it means developing a corporate culture that enhances individual creativity and values teamwork, where people feel respected.
2. Value diversity of people and opinions
Another way to show respect is to build organizations that include people with various personal and professional backgrounds. Respect for people requires listening to and valuing perspectives and viewpoints different from our own.
3. Grow people through coaching and mentoring
Respect for people goes beyond a fundamental moral obligation. One way to help people grow is to facilitate connections with others inside and outside the organization who can contribute to each person’s development journey.
4. Embrace ‘your customer is whoever consumes your work’
Lean and Agile methods are customer-centric, as both recognize that customers are the ultimate beneficiaries of value. It also explicitly addresses that all who consume your work, including people inside the organization, are customers too. Treating them with respect and empathy produces products and services that address their real problems.
5. Build long-term partnerships based on mutual benefit
Many suppliers are required when building the world’s most complex systems. Respecting them would mean holding them in the same high regard as customers, challenging them, and helping them improve. This is done not by bullying or pressuring tactics but by creating long-term relationships defined by ‘win-win’ contracts based on mutual benefit and accountability.
Core Value 4: Relentless Improvement
One of the core values of Lean has been the relentless pursuit of perfection. Striving for it leads to continuous improvements to products and services. Due to this process, companies have created more and better products for less money and with happier customers, leading to higher revenues and greater profitability.
The following often lead to building a culture of relentless improvement in SAFe organizations.
1. Create a constant sense of urgency
Improvement activities should be prioritized as they are essential to the survival of the organization. They require an intense focus on delivering value to the customers by providing products and services that solve their problems in a preferred way over the organization’s competitors.
2. Build a problem-solving culture
The goal is to have a culture of ‘everyone improving all the time.’ And a relentless driver towards achieving that goal is building a problem-solving culture within the organization. It recognizes that a gap exists between the current and desired states, requiring an iterative process to achieve the target state.
3. Reflect and adapt frequently
Improving doesn’t only mean taking on new work. It stresses on taking a periodic pause from the never-ending backlog of new work and address shortcomings of the process at all levels.
4. Let facts guide improvements
Improvements based on opinion or conjecture will likely focus on symptoms instead of true root causes. Improvement results are objectively measured, focusing on empirical evidence. This helps an organization concentrate more on the work needed to solve problems and less on assigning blame or on pursuing improvements that are not solving the original problem.
5. Provide time and space for innovation
Improvements should be designed to increase the effectiveness of the entire system that produces the sustainable flow of value instead of optimizing individual teams, silos, or subsystems.
Leadership is Required
The constant and active support of Lean-Agile leadership and a Continuous Learning Culture is pivotal in applying the SAFe Core Values. Leaders should be exemplifying the core values combined with Lean-Agile mindset, SAFe principles and practices and an orientation towards creating value for customers.
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