Even though Managers never really look busy at PI Planning, they do have stuff to do there, such as help reach out to stakeholders from across the organization, help the RTE remove urgent impediments and get risks assigned from the ROAM session, and support Product Management in difficult priority negotiations with Business Owners and other stakeholder. So, basically, Managers do whatever they can do to take some weight off of the RTE, Product Management, System Architect and teams.

The general role of Managers in a SAFe setup is, besides hiring, firing and compensation, to act as “Lean-thinking manager-teachers”. This means that Managers assist the Agile Coaches, RTEs and LACE in coaching individuals and teams to have a Growth Mindset (i.e., help them embrace change), they lead by example (i.e., exhibiting servant leadership), and they lead the change (i.e., relentlessly teach and manage upwards, and create an environment where the Lean-Agile principles can live).