One team on the county tax-assessment ART trims its own board cycle time, yet protest-letter cycle time for citizens gets longer because downstream handoffs stall. How should the RTE apply systems thinking?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A sparkling local board with a slower citizen journey is like one clerk's window moving faster while the line at the next window doubles. Systems thinking judges the whole protest-letter path, not a single team's swim lane. Local speed that clogs the rest of the stream is not a win.
Full Explanation
SAFe systems thinking (Principle #2) optimizes the value stream the citizen experiences, not an isolated team Kanban. Faster local cycle time can increase WIP and wait downstream, making the end-to-end journey worse. Rewarding that local metric, freezing neighbors, or carving the team out as its own ART all protect a subunit at the stream's expense. The RTE redirects improvement to the whole tax-assessment flow.