Leadership and Culture

Leaders show expected behaviors through what they say and do. Their leadership style shapes the organization's culture, whether positive or negative. The best way to create cultural change is for leaders to act in ways that help everyone succeed in today’s digital and AI world, allowing others to learn from them.

The Leadership and Culture Discipline (L&C) explains how leaders can build a positive and high-performing culture where people and teams can achieve their best. This discipline and its supporting competencies create the essential connections for successfully adopting SAFe as a way of working in the organization. Figure 1 outlines the critical elements leaders must embrace to successfully drive a SAFe transformation and build a positive, continuous learning culture, shifting the organization toward a Lean-Agile mindset and behaviors.

Figure 1. The elements of the Leadership and Culture Discipline

As shown in Figure 1, the ultimate goal of any SAFe transformation is to create a Lean-Agile Organization that can compete and thrive by responding quickly to market changes with innovative products and services. This requires leaders at all levels of the organization to lead differently, establish new ways of working, and ultimately change the culture.

Firstly, all of us as leaders must Become Lean Agile Leaders by actively modeling the mindset and behaviors required for business agility, aiming to shift the culture toward a generative, performance-focused one. To guide the organization on this journey, leaders must embody the Lean-Agile Mindset, consistently exemplify SAFe's Core Values, and consistently apply the SAFe Principles.

Next, leaders act as the primary drivers of change in Building an Adaptive Operating Model with SAFe. A successful transformation requires strong leadership commitment. The first step is Implementing SAFe, which moves the organization from a traditional siloed department structure to one aligned around value streams with ARTs building products and solutions that delight their customers. Successful transformations go behind simply implementing new ways of working. They are also focused on solving real business problems and delivering measurable results. And to this end, context matters. And customizing SAFe to the organization's specific needs is a critical step to fully unlocking value.

As the leaders and the organization change, the organization will Empower a Continuous Learning Culture over time. A culture of continuous learning leverages shared knowledge and rapid experimentation to thrive amid constant disruption. This is fostered through Communities of Practice (CoPs), where people with shared interests collaborate and exchange knowledge. A 'measure and grow' approach to everything we do ensures we take data-driven decisions to identify improvement opportunities, rather than relying on opinions alone. 

Implementing any large-scale change of this kind cannot be done by one person or department alone. A Guiding Coalition is a group of influential, respected, and knowledgeable individuals who are committed to leading and communicating the change effort. Their role is to build trust, secure necessary resources, align the transformation with strategic objectives, and ensure momentum is maintained throughout the journey, overcoming resistance and providing visible leadership support. It starts with the Executives and Leaders of the organizations as the primary drivers of change, empowering SAFe Program Consultants (SPCs) as change agents. Additionally, a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) is often established to coordinate the change efforts and continuously communicate the vision and rationale for the change. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, local champions from different levels and departments across the organization collectively ensure that these new ways of working stick and become just the way we do business.

Competencies of the Leadership and Culture Discipline

Each competency below describes a set of knowledge, skills, and techniques required to achieve mastery in an area of Leadership and Culture. They provide the necessary information, learning resources, and practical application guidance needed to support success. These competencies represent the most up-to-date understanding of the Leadership and Culture Discipline. As new ways of working emerge, the competencies will evolve over time.

Selecting the competencies to focus on at a particular time will depend on organizational context, team, and individual experience and knowledge, and the opportunities or gaps in current ways of working. Click on the competency below that you wish to explore.

NOTE: To accelerate value delivery, the competencies will be released in small batches. All those with a 'blue heading' are currently available, with the remaining 'greyed out' competencies to be released incrementally.