SAFe® (Scaled Agile Frameworks for enterprise) is one of the most popular frameworks for large organisations seeking to achieve business agility.
A great analogy from a friend of Jon’s was that when large organisations research Agile frameworks, they tend to look for frameworks that resemble their own organisation.
In the analogy, Jon’s friend speaks about how SAFe resembles a big, robust castle with all the bells and whistles you would expect from an enterprise-level castle.
Other Agile frameworks tend to resemble a Bedouin tent with adventurous Bedouin tribespeople.
Nomadic. Responsive. Agile.
For many organisations, it’s hard to relate to the kinds of lightweight Agile frameworks that have created successful start-ups the world over.
While the outcomes and results achieved by start-ups using lightweight frameworks are desirable, it’s just incredibly hard to pick something that looks so different to your current organisation.
And so most organisations choose the big, robust Castle.
They choose the structured, predefined framework that enables them to slowly, and safely adopt an Agile Transformation within their traditional environments.
But SAFe isn’t a guarantee.
It is another approach that comes with its own set of great patterns and opportunities but still requires a significant shift in culture and mindset to succeed.
It requires support in the form of experienced coaches and consultants that have worked in SAFe environments and Agile transformations.
People who have been at the coalface and worked through anti-patterns, growing pains, and the unique challenges that come with such an ambitious shift in operational and organisational culture.
Leading SAFe®
The framework isn’t the magic. It’s simply a framework.
It requires people who have worked through successful transformations, and it requires people with the resilience to keep iterating and evolving even when it feels like everything is failing.
Jon Spruce is one of those guys.
A guy who has worked in some of the UK and Europe’s largest, most complex Agile Transformations. A guy who has experienced the thrill of watching an organisation find their Agile feet and begin to thrive despite volatility and complexity.
A guy who has felt the crushing defeat of failed Agile transformations. A guy who had to pick up the pieces and move forward with teams when the wheels came off.
That’s what deep experience is. Being in the arena and having to give your best regardless of what is thrown at you. Becoming smarter because of the successes and the failures. Remembering the patterns that lead to destruction and embracing the patterns that lead to success.
Jon has the war stories. He has the experience of being deep in the trenches, and he has the distinction of having led teams through large, complex SAFe adoptions.
This is why Agile Centre chose Jon.
We wanted someone who could bring a different dynamic to training and coaching. Someone who could lead people through experiences and tailor-made curriculum.
While SAFe provides course presentations and curriculum for inexperienced coaches, Jon built his own Leading SAFe Agilist course.
He wanted to bring the material to life and make the experience engaging, powerful and transformational. He wanted to bring the war stories, expertise and experience of over two decades within some of the most challenging, dynamic and complex environments on Earth.
Jon wanted to lead a course rather than teach it.
He wanted to bring his extensive expertise as an Enterprise level coach and Certified Team Coach to the table in a way that enables delegates to truly understand the value of embedding Agile values and principles within a SAFe adoption.
And so our Certified SAFe Agilist course was born.
If you’re looking for an experience that brings SAFe to life in engaging and compelling ways, look no further than our Leading SAFe – Certified SAFe Agilist course. If you’re looking for a certified trainer that has heaps of field experience, actively working within Scrum and SAFe environments, look no further than Jon Spruce.