In any organisation, transformation involves a unique and evolving system of structures, intentions, values and beliefs that are formed by experiences over time. Such as the way in which a group of people operate together, or learning and adapting from mistakes along the way. As such it is persistent and requires focus and intention to change, with supporting research even indicating that most employees and leaders are aware of the vital importance of culture in the workplace. But fostering and maintaining a positive organisational culture can be challenging, which is why activating such an enabling culture requires effort from all members of the organisation. It is not about dictating what is right or wrong; it is all about creating a movement within an organisation that looks at all the tiny pieces that keep the building upright and finding ways to maintain and enhance those parts simutaneously. 

But How Do We Handle it in SAFe?

 In SAFe, we handle cultural and organisational transformation in no more of a different way when working in other environments. Because what is common across all environments is that there always needs to be a good reason for change. For instance, I was recently reading research from MKinsey and Co., and what I found interesting was that with many of the change initiatives that company’s applied, there were high rates of associated failures. But what I found most interesting of all was that when the stakes were higher, there were less failures.

This led me to the idea that when a team and business desires significant change and results, the drive to push change cannot be ignored, particularly when the potential benefits of change outweigh the risks. Therefore when you move towards change, it’s good to have a needle pinpointing where we are moving from a business perspective and determining how important change is within the organisation. From there we can tailor our strategies accordingly and implement it. For organisational transformation to be meaningful however, we need to make sure that the changes and outcomes we are aiming to achieve have a high level visibility and are thus on our top level radar as opposed to below the radar. 

In terms of cultural transformation, what is important to remember is that culture to a certain extent is a learned behaviour and takes a while to change especially when working in a multicultural and diverse team. For this reason, cultural transformation can be incredibly incremental. So what we can do is change the climate, and what we mean by changing the climate is that we introduce and model behaviours that are entirely different from what the team is accustomed to. So instead of dictating what everyone should be or do, step by step we lead by example and exhibit the behaviours we want to manifest in our organisation. 

Interested to learn more about meaningful cultural and organisational transformation? 

At Value Glide, through the application of  SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), we are able to offer agile consulting, agile coaching, and agile training specialists who work with organisations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.

As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team is invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and uses the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.

In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism. 

If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organisation and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.

If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organisation adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page. We are committed to equipping organisations with the tools and knowledge to thrive in this ever-changing digital age, and achieve business agility through the Scaled Agile Framework. 

Sounds good to you? Then sign-up today, and learn more about this transformation and revolutionary framework that is changing the game in the world of Agile. It is truly remarkable what can be done when we put our heads together and decide to work as one.

If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.

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