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2023 SAFe Summit - Nashville, Tennessee
Meet the ICON Agility Services team at the 2023 SAFe® Summit in Nashville, Tennessee! Learn firsthand from SAFe® experts, August 16-18.
ICON Sessions And Speakers At A Glance
Change Fatigue: The Culture Keeps Score
August 16 | 2:05 - 2:45 PM CT
Change fatigue is a key cause of failure in Lean-Agile transformations. Experts, leaders and SAFe coaches tell us, "We love that we are talking about this topic, it is a significant challenge for the majority of transformations!" Enterprises engage business consulting firms to assist in transitions, while incoming executives often introduce new consulting teams. The outcome is an excess of change and inability to implement change. Scaled Agile’s course, Accelerating Change Leadership (ACL), invites us to explore barriers that can derail change initiatives. In our course breakouts we explored whether change fatigue in organizations triggers a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) type reaction at scale. After the course our research backed up the notion of PTSD at Scale. We draw on insights from psychiatrists, trauma experts, and business psychologists to explore how change fatigue can lead to cultural trauma. We will use case studies to identify its effects on the basic elements of safety, stability, and identity. We will use interactive activities to show how leaders can heal these affects. We will present a model that coaches and leaders can use to address the symptoms of PTSD / Cultural trauma by involving employees in the change process and providing them with the support and resources they need to adapt to new initiatives. We will lean heavily on SAFe 6.0 Studio resources such as building a LACE and using the new responsibility wheels to clarify roles and build transformation ownership. Our model will help coaches, leaders, and organizations create a culture of resilience and agility that is better able to adapt to the changing needs of the business environment. We will conclude by highlighting the importance of taking care of organizational culture as it “keeps score” and affects the overall success of the organization to survive and thrive in our current era of rapidly accelerating incessant change.
In this session you will learn to:
- Grasp the Concept of Change Fatigue Recognize the symptoms and impact of change fatigue on organizational culture
- Take away a practice for taking care of organizational culture
Speakers: Clive Hays, ICON SPCT Candidate and Charlene Newton, Principal and Agile Consultant
How “Diet and Exercise” are a lot like a SAFe Transformation
August 17, 2023 | 2:20 - 3:00 PM CT
It's Jan 1, we have that resolution locked and loaded this year - I will get in shape (a shape that is not a pear!). Time for a health transformation! -or- We are adopting agility! Time for an agile transformation!
In both cases, why do some succeed? Why do some achieve some level of success but would not call it remarkable? Why do some people fail, and how do we know if we succeed or fail? After all, we all started our diet and exercise per the plan! Shouldn't we all achieve, if not the same, similar results? Sadly, the answer is no. But Why? We followed the "plan".
Average weight before filming The Biggest Loser: 328 lb.
Average weight after 30 weeks on The Biggest Loser: 199 lb.
Average weight six years after final on camera weigh-in: 290 lb.
But what about SAFe Transformations? Surely we are better at sustaining! So many comparisons can be drawn between an agile transformation and a health transformation… how you prepare, starting simple, what goals you set, how each person/teams goals and journeys are different, how some diets aren’t sustainable, creating habits, improving each day, being consistent, that feeling of not making progress, being able to pivot, and learning new techniques.
How do we avoid those "dieting" pitfalls? The answer is focusing on the basics before expansion. Ever hear "Measure what matters"? When I started using "My Fitness Pal" to record my "caloric intake" along with my exercise, guess what, MY BEHAVIOR CHANGED! (for the better). Make the change part of a daily routine. Base decisions on what we learn. Strive to improve even when there are setbacks.
Speaker: Duane Bushman, ICON SPCT and Business Agility Transformation Coach
Managing Portfolio of Portfolios in SaaS and Cyberphysical Context
August 18, 2023 | 11:15 - 11:55 AM CT
All large enterprises are filled with great ideas. Our challenges are finding the human capacity to address them, and the enterprise funding to support them. In practice, this means dealing with challenges like understanding what the highest Enterprise-level priorities are, creating Enterprise-wide alignment around objectives, cross-portfolio and value stream coordination, and ensuring that the Enterprise strategy isn’t lost to reactive efforts and the tyranny of the urgent. This presentation will cover the real-life challenges we faced implementing Enterprise Portfolio Management in both SaaS and large-scale complex cyberphysical environments. We will explore strategies for overcoming these challenges and increasing organizational and strategy agility. By understanding how to coordinate across portfolios, create Enterprise-wide transparency and alignment, and prioritize key strategic initiatives, Enterprise Portfolio Management provides organizations the tools to prioritize and manage delivery more effectively to achieve their business objectives. In this session you will learn to: Gain an understanding of the importance of enterprise strategy in coordinating portfolios and managing complex cyberphysical environments.
Attendees will learn:
- Techniques and tools for managing portfolios, defining value streams, and integrating with suppliers to prioritize learning and effectively allocate resources
- Strategies for addressing challenges of managing cyberphysical development environments
- Strategies for coordinating portfolios to achieve greater organizational agility across multiple value streams and initiatives
- Approaches required to manage hardware and software components, as well as the positive impact of collaboration and transparency in these environments
Speakers: Saahil Panikar, ICON SPCT and Cindy VanEpps, SPCT
Clive Hays, ICON SPCT Candidate
Change Fatigue: The Culture Keeps Score
August 16 | 2:05 - 2:45 PM CT
Duane Bushman, ICON SPCT
How “Diet and Exercise” are a lot like a SAFe Transformation
August 17, 2023 | 2:20 - 3:00 PM CT
Saahil Panikar, ICON SPCT
Managing Portfolio of Portfolios in SaaS and Cyberphysical Contexts
August 18, 2023 | 11:15 - 11:55 AM CT
Dee Miller, VP Professional Services
Dee is an SPC with 15+ years of experience leading global SAFe/Agile Transformations in the financial and healthcare industries. As ICON’s VP of Professional Services, Dee helps leaders identify qualified experts that will complete their agile teams and elevate results to the next level. Her experience leading Scrum Masters, RTEs, and Product Owner disciplines allows her to work closely with clients to support staffing of the supplemental roles critical to the success of their Agile journey.
Stella O'Brien, Sr. VP Sales
Stella has spent 25+ years with ICON, supporting the customer journey and providing the best people with tools for their success. She is responsible for and committed to nurturing relationships with her team, clients, coaches, and partners. She is passionate about building a community that people want to be a part of and helping others to achieve their goals.
Katie Snelson, Director of Sales & Recruiting
For 9+ years, Katie has helped ICON's business grow by increasing sales from new and existing accounts, leading recruitment initiatives, and supporting company direction. She is passionate about taking care of her clients and encouraging a supportive work environment.
Charlene Cuenca, SAFe Fellow & ICON SPCT
With 31+ years of professional experience, Charlene has been a leader in transforming organizations and teams into Agile and Scaled Agile best practices. Charlene has experience working with enterprise Agile initiatives with organizations large and small, Federal Government and Fortune 500 companies for over 18 years.
Doug Less, ICON SPCT
He has 20+ years of multidisciplinary consulting service experience, with the last decade aimed at driving the adoption of Agile values, principles, and practices to help people go beyond DOING Agile to BEING Agile. His coaching approach incorporates compassion, humor, flexibility, and creativity to navigate transformation challenges and motivate people to do extraordinary things.
ICON Agility Services Will Be There!
We are ICON Agility Services – the first partner of Scaled Agile, and we’re proud to be among the sponsors of this incredible event! And with the recent release of SAFe® 6.0, there will be plenty to see and experience!
Meet us at Booth 118 in the Partner Marketplace, where attendees can view demos, request appointments, or simply stop by to chat with us.
More To Explore
5 Tips for Leading a Great Inspect & Adapt Workshop
Are you an RTE or an SPC in the IP iteration at the end of your PI who is getting ready to run the SAFe® Inspect and Adapt (I&A) Workshop? Does it seem a bit daunting? It's big. It's a bit complicated. It's got lots of people. Maybe you're wondering if it's even worth it. Trust us, it is.
Check out these 5 tips from SPCT Randy Smith.
Finding Blind Spots in Your Steps to Creating a SAFe LACE Team
Blindspots. It's hard to know them if you don't have clear outcomes. It becomes even harder if your Team Impact Energy is not aligned with where you need to go to even when you get clear outcomes.
In this article from Veronica Stewart, learn how you can use impact energy to better understand how to find your blind spots and adapt to them when forming a LACE team.
OKR Writing 101: How to Write an Effective OKR
OKR. OKR. OKR. If you're like me, you've seen this acronym everywhere. OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, are the latest craze in Enterprise and Strategy management. They sound simple and straightforward enough, but writing an effective OKR can be much more challenging than it seems.
Learn how to write an effective OKR in this article from Saajan Panikar & Saahil Panikar, SPCT.