SAFe 5.0 was launched a little over a year ago. A new version dedicated to business agility: making whole companies more flexible and agile, ready for change at a moment's notice. Because the world is constantly changing, and you need to change with it if you want to be able to compete. 2020 gave us a perfect example.

Live, from the studio in Loosdrecht: Agile@Scale Global. An event organized for people not just interested in working agile, but at scale – with hundreds of employees at the same time. Hosted by Eelco Rustenburg and Laurens Bonnema, over 50 participants from all over the world took in presentations, breakout room workshops and roundtable sessions, and enjoyed some comic relief during PowerPoint Karaoke.

If you’re a Dutch citizen and you have a mortgage, there’s a reasonable chance that your case file runs on a Florius platform. To reduce time-to-market and increase customer centricity, the company put together its first Agile Release Train about three years ago. Several prize-winning innovations later, there’s reason for SAFe Agilists Maartje van der Veen and Patrick Wijsman to look back and share the learnings at Agile@Scale.

Aspiring SPCs that want to improve their game should seriously consider the triple-deal ‘SPC in a week.’ The subtle work of the SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) requires a lot of what the Germans call ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’: in other words, experience is key. So, what better way to boost your beginnings as an SPC than with our ‘SPC in a week’ offer? Immerse yourself in a full week of mentorship, knowledge exchange and training by one the world’s most experienced SAFe trainers, SPCT Eelco Rustenburg with Marijt Weerts. From January 25^th ‘til 29^th… it’s all about the ART.

Agilists focus on program performance; line management focuses on functional excellence and control. Agilists preach a focus on product outcome, while line management tends to maximize output. Just two obvious stereotypes between the two groups. Sander Nienkemper looks forward to visiting Agile@Scale, because he combines both roles (as well as a third!) at insurance company Vivat.

The “Implementing SAFe® (SPC)” training course is part of the Gladwell Academy’s SAFe training portfolio. While all Gladwell Academy training courses were previously conducted in English, prospective SAFe 5.0 Program Consultants in Germany have been able to learn in their native language since September: the “Implementing SAFe® (SPC)” training course is offered in German on a total of four dates in 2020. These training courses are organised by the Gladwell Academy in cooperation with wibas GmbH, a leading provider of SAFe® training.

I have always done it this way and been successful. I know what I’m doing. Trust me!

As one of the five core competencies of the Lean enterprise, Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) can help you learn to recognize and optimally leverage your organization’s value streams. We reached out to Jimmy Cams, a former participant of the course to get his thoughts on what he learned and how it has impacted his work.

As the world begins the gradual process of returning to normal, the trainers and consultants at Gladwell Academy and Blinklane Consulting are considering how we might facilitate and make the most of this transition by introducing “hybrid” trainings”, which draw on the best qualities of both remote and in-person courses.

Ever since social distancing made impact, we have been hard at work making all of our courses and trainings compatible with remote learning. Through hard work and expertise, trainers like SPCT Anand Murthy Raj have made remote SPC training effective, informative, and enjoyable leaving participants ready to begin their SAFe Program Consultant journey.  

Product Owners and Product Managers (POPM) together represent the customer’s wishes regarding a service or product. We asked Gladwell Academy trainer Boris de Jong to offer his thoughts on what role the PO and PM play in a SAFe organization, and how they can optimize their work.

Have you heard about the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and how it can bring both Agile and Lean ways of working to large organizations? Maybe your organization has decided to adopt SAFe but you don’t know where to begin? The Leading SAFe course answers all your questions as you begin your SAFe journey and earn your SAFe Agilist certification.

Gladwell Academy’s “Leading SAFe” course with instructor Boris de Jong was one of its first courses to move to a remote setting following social distancing measures. We reached out to a former participant to get their thoughts on the experience and what they learned.

On June 10-11 2020, Gladwell Academy was proud to be among the exhibitors at Scaled Agile’s first ever virtual European SAFe Summit. One of the first events of its kind, the summit provided an opportunity to consider where the future of events to share knowledge and build new connections may be moving.

SAFe for Architects is a relatively new training in the Scaled Agile curriculum. What value does it add and why is it important? A seasoned architect himself, Frank Langeveld is also a SAFe trainer at Gladwell Academy. He shares his insights and experience with organizational architecture.

Okay, here’s a challenge for you. At Gladwell Academy, we recently remotely trained an organization that produces hardware and advanced technology. This training on SAFe practices presented a new threshold for us, as it brought our training to a scale previously unheard of!

Beginning in 2017, Gladwell Academy began offering discounted summer courses in Scrum & SAFe and will continue to do so this year. With summer coming and many organizations slowing down, now is the time to take the initiative on your career path with training that will boost you and your organization in the coming year.

Working remote means following remote trainings, too. Is a remote course worth your time? What’s it like? How does Gladwell Academy enhance the experience? Here’s what Jeroen Frenken has to say.

Lisa van de Voort, a seasoned Agile transformation consultant at BlinkLane Consulting, reflects on her recent first training session with the U.S. Army on Agile practices. Traveling to the U.S. military base in San Antonio, TX she visited “a unique organization with its own unique challenges… and a wholly unique impact.”

With the World Health Organization’s current guidelines Gladwell Academy finds itself moving its trainings into an online remote only setting. Gladwell Trainer Eduardo Alvim discusses how he has adapted the highly advanced, SAFe RTE course to be effectively taught in a remote classroom.