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SAFe Executive Workshop
Get your leadership team aligned before you launch.
SAFe transformations succeed or stall on what leaders do, not on the framework itself. This focused half-day brings your leadership team together to agree on the problems worth solving, understand what only leaders can change, and commit to the specific actions that support your first Agile Release Train (ART) launch.
Built on SAFe's Implementation Roadmap, the workshop moves your leaders from understanding the problem, through promoting flow with a Lean-Agile Mindset, to leading the implementation and measuring the results. It is practical and decision-focused: leaders leave with a shared understanding and a plan, not a lecture.
The session is designed for the leaders who will also attend Leading SAFe and sponsor the change. It works best when the whole leadership team is in the room together.
The workshop runs for approximately half a day (4 hours), on-site or virtually, with no prerequisites.
Facilitated by SAFe Fellows who are also SPCTs.
Outcomes
- Agree on the top problems your transformation must solve
- Understand the specific actions only leaders can take to change the system
- Identify a target for your first ART and the change agents to support it
- Agree how you'll measure progress across outcomes, flow and competency
- Leave with a 30-day Action Plan with named owners
Overcome these challenges
- The transformation is being delegated down when it needs leaders to drive it
- No shared agreement among leaders on the problems worth solving
- No sense of urgency, or a burning platform no one has named
- Uncertainty about where to start and what good leadership looks like in SAFe
Who should attend
Executives, senior leaders and sponsors starting or restarting a SAFe transformation. For the best results, bring the whole leadership team into the room together.
- Executive sponsors and business unit leaders
- Senior leaders and managers who will support the first ART
- Change leaders and prospective LACE members
- The leaders who will also take Leading SAFe
What you'll explore and achieve
Working as a leadership team, you'll agree on the problems worth solving, explore how a Lean-Agile Mindset, SAFe's Core Values and Principles promote flow, and work through what it takes to lead the implementation: training everyone, launching your first ART, and building the change agents and guiding coalition (LACE) to sustain it.
You'll look at the outcomes SAFe delivers — faster time-to-market, higher quality, higher productivity and stronger engagement — and agree how you'll measure progress across the three domains of outcomes, flow and competency.
You leave with a 30-day Action Plan organised by theme, with named owners: promoting flow, leading the implementation, and getting the results.
Where the Executive Workshop fits
The Executive Workshop is the leadership starting point for your SAFe transformation. From here:
- Leaders attend Leading SAFe to build the mindset and skills to lead the change.
- Change agents attend Implementing SAFe to learn to guide the roadmap and launch your first ARTs.
- Pair it with the Measuring the Business Benefits of SAFe workshop to connect the transformation to business outcomes.
Frequently asked questions
It's a facilitated half-day session for enterprise leaders starting their SAFe journey. It helps a leadership team agree on the problems worth solving, understand what leaders must personally do to support the change, and build a shared 30-day action plan to prepare for launching their first Agile Release Train (ART).
Executives, senior leaders, sponsors and prospective LACE members — the people who will lead and support the SAFe transformation. It works best when the whole leadership team attends together, and it's designed for the same leaders who will go on to take Leading SAFe.
None. It's an entry point for leaders new to SAFe. Some participants find it useful to read a short overview of SAFe beforehand, but nothing is required.
Approximately half a day, around four hours.
Yes, it runs on-site or virtually, using a shared collaborative space so participants' work is captured and can be referred to later.
A shared view of the top problems to solve, agreement on the actions only leaders can take, an initial target for your first ART, and a 30-day Action Plan with named owners across promoting flow, leading the implementation and getting the results.
Leading SAFe is a two-day certification course that teaches leaders the full framework and the Lean-Agile Mindset in depth. The Executive Workshop is a shorter, decision-focused session that aligns your leadership team and produces an action plan. Some organisations run the Executive Workshop first to build alignment and commitment, then send their leaders to Leading SAFe.
It sits at the start of the SAFe Implementation Roadmap, around the tipping point where leaders decide to go SAFe. In the workshop, leaders follow the roadmap from that decision through to launching the first ART, and agree the near-term actions to get there.