SPCs Unleashed
For SPC's, RTE's and other SAFe Change Leaders, who want to extend their Lean-Agile repertoire and increase their impact, SPCs Unleashed is a weekly podcast with a group of SAFe Fellows and SPCTs working through the SAFe competencies to give guidance on when, why and how to deepen skills in that area.
The show is anchored in the 7 core SAFe competencies, each of which has 3 dimensions. Each week we'll cover one dimension, with an occasional detour to something we have shared passion for as an important area of growth.
We won't be focusing on foundational knowledge. The show is about 'where to go next', 'when/why to go there' and 'what to look out for' once you have the foundations. It won't be 'one point of view'; we come from different contexts with different passions, and you'll have more to choose from.
https://shapingagility.com/shows
Episodes
38 episodes
Decouple, Contextualize, Evolve: A Sorrento Summit Debrief
“Safe is evolving in small batches now—not just big bangs.” - Nikolaos KaintantzisIntroductionNiko moderates this debrief of the 2024 SAFe Summit in Sorrento—but it quickly becomes more than a recap. While only he an...
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Season 2
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Episode 17
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54:11
Value Stream Mapping: When it Works, and Why it Fails
“There are at least four different versions of a process: how managers believe it operates, how it's supposed to operate, how it really operates, and how it could operate.” —Mark RichardsIntroductionThis episode be...
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Season 2
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Episode 16
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49:32
Running a Smarter Value Stream and ART Identification workshop
"Don't underestimate how much fear is in the room" - Ali HajouIn this episode of SPCs Unleashed, Mark Richards, Stephan Neck, Ali Hajou, and Nikolaos Kaintantzis bring their collective experience to o...
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Season 2
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Episode 15
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1:07:10
The software behind high-impact virtual workshops
“Good flow is invisible, but it takes a lot of work to get there” - Nikolaos KaintantzisIn this episode of SPCs Unleashed, Mark Richards, Ali Hajou, Nikolaos Kaintantzis, and Stephan Neck take you b...
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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1:01:07
Agile: Dead, Misunderstood, or Evolving?
“It’s weeding time, right? Sometimes you have to weed out stuff that doesn’t work. Dead wood is not good on a tree.” - Stephan NeckIs Agile really “dead,” or just misunderstood and badly applied? In this lively pod...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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54:59
Stand, Share, Engage: Innovating your Remote Facilitation Setup
“A cheap writing tablet can transform your PowerPoint into a shared canvas.” - Ali HajouRemote facilitation has come a long way since the early days of clunky video calls. In this lively episode, four experien...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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1:04:17
The Dual Operating System in Practice
“Leaders have to do more than simply say ‘we have two systems.’ They have to actively steer the organization so it’s both robust and free to innovate.” - Stephan NeckWhat happens when an organization outgrows ...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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57:13
Designing for Distance: Remote Facilitation Done Right
“If you do no pre-work, the first 20 minutes are lost—someone can’t open Miro, doesn’t have the password, so you lose that time sorting out technical difficulties.” - Mark RichardsRemote facilitation may feel like jugglin...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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1:00:02
Sparking Change through Scaled Retrospectives
“If you ask questions about the past, it’s always about going to a corpse and opening it up... If you ask questions about the future, it’s always about values" - Nikolaos Kaintantzis“Are you all dumb?” When...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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58:56
Mastering Distributed PI Planning
“If you do it right, if you have the right people, and if you have some nerds and lots of engineering DNA, it really works on the tool side" - Stephan NeckIf you’ve ever believed that failing once in remote PI Planning me...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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58:53
Dashboards and ART Insights
Effective dashboards and ART insights are crucial to navigating the complexities of Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and organizational alignment.In this episode of SPCs Unleashed, Mark Richards, Stephan Neck, Niko Kaintantzis, and Ali Hajou ...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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59:34
Change Management & The Implementation Roadmap
“Shi(f)t happens: Either guided or becoming a loose cannon” - Stephan Neck.This episode explores change management in the context of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), which refers to the process of planning...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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56:13
Alignment, Adaptability, and Politics: The Secrets of Successful LPM Coaching
“If you want to coach senior leaders, you need to start by understanding what’s important to them—even if it has nothing to do with Lean Portfolio Management.” - Mark Richards.In this lively and thought-provoking epi...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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54:26
Mastering PI Planning - Leadership Beyond the Framework
"PI Planning is where the framework meets reality—it’s a test of alignment, collaboration, and leadership." - Stephan NeckIn this episode of SPCs Unleashed, hosts Stephan Neck, Niko Kaintantzis, and A...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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50:51
Facilitation - The Catalyst for Change
"A facilitator lights the spark of collaboration, then steps back to let the fire grow" - Stephan NeckIn this episode of SPCs Unleashed, hosts Mark Richards, Niko Kaintantzis, and Stephan Neck delve into the art ...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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1:01:17
Guiding Without Giving Answers - Redefining Coaching as a Skill
“Coaching isn’t about being the answering machine; it’s about giving space for people to find their own answers..” - Niko Kaintantzis.In this episode of SPCs Unleashed, Nikolaos Kaintantzis, Mark Richards, and Step...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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55:42
Effective onboarding of leaders into SAFe
“Leadership is 'the art of getting people to want to do what must be done' - and this means not just the people who report to them but their peers and those they report to.” - Mark Richards.In this episode of SPCs ...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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52:37
The Art of Strategy Agility: How to Sense, Adapt, and Lead in a Dynamic World
“Strategy agility isn't about waiting for a crisis. It's about building the muscle to stop, pivot, and adapt before disaster strikes.” - Mark RichardsThis episode sees hosts Nikolaos Kaintantzis, Stephan Neck, Mark...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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57:22
Lean Business Operations - Dancing Across Silos (#21)
“You will cross some silos, stretch some rules, but in the end, you work together, have joy, and achieve greatness.” - Nikolaos KaintantzisIn this penultimate episode of the SPCs Unleashed Competency journey, hosts...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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55:21
Find the Balance between Sugar and Sustainability with Agile Portfolio Operations (#20)
“Without consistency and standards none of this works. With too much consistency nothing changes. You have to steer and constantly sense and course-correct.” - Mark RichardsMark Richards and Niko Kaintantzis j...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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54:10
In control of complexity with Lean Governance (#19)
"If you can start talking to audit, you can find solutions that they will help you reach that nobody else would have thought about" - Mark RichardsIn Episode 19, hosted by Stephan Neck, Nikolaos Kaintantzis, Ali Ha...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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59:56
Leadership in Change: From one stable state to the next (#6)
“Show up. Keep up. Shut up.” (Change agent’s creed, borrowed from golf pro caddy creed) - Stephan NeckMark Richards, Ali Hajou, and Niko Kaintantzis join Stephan Neck in this ‘reprise’ episode with Leading Change from the...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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55:30
Strategy and Investment Funding - Start with what's real and work from there (#18)
“As an SPC on the Portfolio Level: The first time just be an assistant, not the head coach. Learn about how companies work, how they speak, how they behave.” - Nikolaos KaintantzisHosts Nikolaos Kaintantzis, Stephan Neck,...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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56:56
Overcoming the challenges of continuously evolving Cyber-Physical Systems (#17)
“Design for easy repairability, especially in complex systems that must evolve over time.” - Ali HajouIn this episode, the SPCs Unleashed team tackles the complex dimension of continually evolving live systems, with a par...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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54:15
Building large, complex, interlinked, cyber-physical systems the lean way (#16)
"Experiment like a scientist, not a mad scientist" - Mark RichardsHave you ever pondered, "How can a lean approach work wonders for massive systems?" That’s exactly where we dive into this episode of SPCs Unleashed. Hosted by Sw...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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59:36