E130: Guiding LPM with Generative Leadership – Guest Phil Gardiner

The conversation revolved around the importance of organizing around value to foster collaboration, team resilience, and innovation. Leaders must co-create unique spaces where people can thrive and succeed, starting small and gradually scaling Lean Portfolio Management. Aligning portfolios with value streams is crucial for resilient teams, and leaders must understand existing structures and cultures before introducing new principles and practices. Effective leadership engagement is essential for successfully implementing SAFe initiatives, and leaders must model desired behaviors and invest their credibility in the new way of working.

 

Leveraging Lean Portfolio Management to improve organizational efficiency.

• Phil Gardiner and Dr. Dave discuss the importance of focusing on value streams in Lean portfolio management.
• Dr. Dave and Phil Gardiner discuss leveraging safe Agile principles to create empowering environments.

Implementing Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) in organizations, focusing on gradual change and buy-in.

• Phil shares their passion for Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) and its impact on leadership behaviors.
• Phil emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and courage in the LPM journey.
• Phil emphasizes identifying and understanding the value stream before implementing Lean Product Management (LPM).
• Phil suggests that educating and involving stakeholders in the value stream identification and education workshop is crucial to getting buy-in and scale agile practices.

Value stream mapping and organizing around value in a complex system.

• Phil discusses value stream mapping, a collaborative approach to identify and improve operational flow.
• Phil uses big room value stream mapping to unite diverse stakeholders, fostering shared understanding and alignment.
• Phil shares insights on organizing around value, emphasizing the importance of virtual teams and flexible leadership.
• Phil facilitates in-person and remote events, capturing aha moments and insights in an "Oh, aha parking lot."

Value stream mapping and its impact on agile development.

• Phil highlights the importance of value stream identification workshops, which capture waste and bottlenecks in the agile release train and portfolio organization.
• During these events, senior leaders can be engaged and supportive of the new way of working, leading to immediate-term value and belief in the process.
• Phil describes a development organization that was slow to deliver personalization tags, taking 3-6 months for requests to be fulfilled.
• Dr. Dave discusses the importance of leadership in supporting a value-stream-focused organization, emphasizing the need for willingness and enablement.

Organizing around value in software development.

• Dr. Dave shares insights on organizational structure and communication in large companies.
• Phil emphasizes the importance of understanding the mission and its impact on innovation and engagement.
• Portfolio canvas creation helps connect the enterprise's strategy to the portfolio's vision and future state.

Implementing Agile and Lean principles in organizations, focusing on leadership engagement and business outcomes.

• Phil highlights the importance of executive engagement for successfully implementing SAFe practices.
• Phil describes implementing Lean and Agile in a joint US Air Force-Army program, highlighting the importance of senior leadership engagement and business outcomes.
• AT&T's Chief Marketing Officer attended a 2018 safe summit, sharing their experience with implementing Lean and Agile and the benefits of engaged leadership.

Challenges with implementing value stream funding in organizations, including resistance from finance leaders.

• Phil reflects on their mentoring journey, sharing insights on safe leadership.
• Phil emphasizes the importance of seeing examples of safe leadership in action.
• Phil mentions that clients often struggle with implementing value stream funding due to natural reluctance to change (13 words)
• Phil notes that finance executives may be cynical about value stream funding but are open to it in one-on-one conversations (14 words)
• Phil's client learned the hard way about the importance of measuring outcomes in business cases.

Organizing around value in agile development.

• Dr. Dave and Phil discuss fostering open communication, empowering teams, and aligning goals with value streams to improve agile release training.
• Phil discusses challenges in implementing value stream funding, including pushback from leaders.
• Phil shares a success story of a cybersecurity company that implemented a Kanban system, which led to increased ownership and collaboration among executives.

Impact of organizational change on leaders and employees.

• Dr. Dave highlights the impact of organizational change on people with different roles and responsibilities.
• Phil emphasizes the importance of executive engagement and addresses their three key questions.
• Speaker highlights importance of culture in Agile implementation, citing examples from Army and Air Force.
• Leaders must create an open environment for feedback, fostering curiosity and collaboration.

Lean portfolio management and its importance in empowering business owners.

• Phil emphasizes the importance of business owner engagement in Agile transformations.
• Phil describes the ideal business owner role as hands-on, approachable, and open to conversations.
• Dr. Dave emphasizes the importance of trust and empowerment in achieving organizational goals.
• Phil advises against waiting for the right time to implement Lean portfolio management, emphasizing its potential benefits.