Teaching is learning

I’ve been thinking about some key concepts within SAFe a lot lately. Some of what comes to mind is around being an internal change agent and being disruptive while also embracing conflict. Believe it or not, these are concepts within SAFe. But to what purpose do these concepts serve; and when delivered incorrectly, what damage can they cause? This is what has worried me. We as Business Agility Coaches have a responsibility to better our team’s performance, but as servant leaders we have a deeper responsibility to our team’s autonomy. There’s a distinguishable conflict there. In Safe we teach Scrum Masters, Release Train Engineers and Solution Train Engineers to “protect your teams”. And then within the contracting world there is the ambition of disrupting the marketplace through innovative concepts like SAFe and all the frameworks it intails. As I thought more about this, I realized these concepts could cause issues with some of our our CALMR aspects of DevOps within SAFe. Specifically, the C for Culture. Which brings us to the question we must solve as coaches. How do I as an Agile coach drive change, disrupt complacent norms, embrace conflict, protect my teams, increase performance and attribute to a culture that one looks forward to working within every day? It’s a real question, and not one we should take lightly. 

While thinking about this I came across an article that brought some of this to light for me. I’m sharing this as it may also help many of you as well. The article is shown here: https://www.digitaltonto.com/2015/good-disruption-bad-disruption/ In the article it talks about good disruptors versus bad disruptors. One might think all disruption is the same, but there is a key mindset difference that we should all carry with us. Good disruptors seek to connect while bad disruptors seek to destroy. In other words, it’s ok to break old models in order to better them in a way that benefits us all, but it’s not ok to break them because we either can’t understand them or simply wish them to stop without real cause. 

Which brings me to my own personal conflict that I will share with you. In my career I have been told on numerous occasions that something could not be done. Applying SAFe within VA was one of them. I remember posting on my linkedIn page that “I desire to change the system”. I wanted to be disruptive and drive towards improvement for our veterans. It literally was my profile tag line. I was willing to be abrasive and forceful to make my voice heard. But to be honest, it was egotistical. I thought I was right and everyone else had gotten it wrong. But how could that really be true if I stopped and thought about it? I was standing on the shoulders of giants to even be able to make that argument. It wasn’t until years later that I learned there has been some truly innovative concepts behind the agile practices before me. PMAS was miles ahead of its predecessor, while VIP continued this path even further (for those who have worked within the VA this might resonate). They were disruptive yes, but in a good disruptive way. They built on what we had learned within our environment and made them better. So, I will leave you with this; learn from my mistakes and stop to recognize your own ego. Be disruptive to models to improve them, do not simply throw them away because you think you are right. Listen first and apply your experiences to improve the people’s lives that will follow you. Dare I say that SAFe is not perfect. And it does not always fit every situation we face within the government contracting world. SAFe recognizes this and strives to improve with every iteration. What SAFe does do however is set an intent. So, give your teams intent with your coaching and then let them teach you in return. You might learn something. I know I have. 

Brent