Shaping Portfolio Agility E2 - What makes a portfolio lean, and what are its jobs to be done? Mar 25, 2024

"In nearly half of the cases I can think of, the things that the teams most hate providing to governance are the same things the governance team doesn't actually want and doesn't know how to tell the teams to stop providing"

Eric Willeke


 

This episode dives into the 'Lean'...

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Coffee Club E5: The challenge of being facilitated and the joy of creating connected talks Mar 21, 2024

"First you sit in the moment, then you dance in the moment, if a little bit later."

Eric Willeke


 

Rebecca's in Disneyworld this week, so Eric and Mark are unsupervised again! We've both just finished our second draft of our talks for the Berlin SAFe Summit, so naturally, we start by...

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Shaping Portfolio Agility E1 - Portfolios: What are they, and what really matters? Mar 18, 2024

"Start with questions that paint a picture of today before you try painting a picture of tomorrow" 

Mark Richards 


 

In this podcast's first episode, we lay the foundations for exploring Lean Portfolio Management. We start with a high-level overview of portfolios and their...

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SPCs Unleashed E11: Create an environment that supports creative thinking and curiosity if you want an Innovation Culture Mar 08, 2024

"Experiment like a scientist, not a mad scientist"

Mark Richards


 

Have you ever asked yourself, "If Innovation was an animal, which one would it be?" That's how Niko started this episode's journey into the Innovation Culture dimension of SAFe's Continuous Learning Culture competency....

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Coffee Club E4: Exploring the power of cohort based training Mar 05, 2024

"I deeply love curiosity-driven learning. Go figure"

Eric Willeke


 

Rebecca leaves Eric and Mark unsupervised this week, and the conversation winds up revolving around Mark's highlight of the week, which is his excitement as he experiences the power of cohort-based training.

The...

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SPCs Unleashed E10: Fuel the enterprise's ability to dynamically transform itself by becoming a Learning Organization Mar 01, 2024

"At the heart of a learning organization is a shift of mind - from seeing ourselves as separate from the world to connected to the world, from seeing problems as caused by someone or something 'out there' to seeing how our actions create the problems we experience"

Peter Senge


 

As an...

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SPCs Unleashed E9: Put the customer at the center of every decision with Customer Centricity and Design Thinking Feb 23, 2024

"Test it while it feels unfinished. Otherwise, you fall in love with your solution and defend it instead of accepting feedback."

Niko Kaintantzis


 

As an SPC or agile change agent, how do you support your organization's mastery of Customer Centricity and Design Thinking? In this...

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Coffee Club E3: Bringing environmental and social sustainability to life in your product development Feb 20, 2024

"This is a very real concern for how we make decisions that need to filter all the way down to what people are doing day to day. Otherwise, it's just going to stay in that ethereal layer of well-intentioned statement that doesn't actually get acted upon."

Michael Casey


 

This week,...

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SPCs Unleashed E8: Create more and better products for less money with happier customers through Relentless Improvement Feb 16, 2024

"Scream and shout that you've done good things"

Ali Hajou


 

As an SPC or other agile change agent, how do you help your organization turn Relentless Improvement from something you talk about to something you do? In this episode, Ali , Stephan, and Mark continue in their quest to...

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Coffee Club E2: The joy of feed-driven iteration and the challenge of bringing it to life (#2) Feb 06, 2024

"If you can get somebody to be brain melty and gooey and actually happy about it, man, go you!"

Rebecca Davis


 

Our second coffee club took a very wandering path. After Rebecca kicked us off talking about the RTE Summit, Eric's highlight of the week was the Princeton Panel discussion...

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Coffee Club E1: What we read on our holidays Jan 30, 2024

"I think being a leader and running an organization, especially one that's hard, that's big, is actually really hard. And it frustrates me when I read something and people are trying to make it sound easy or simple."

Rebecca Davis


 

As 2023 wrapped, we decided two things about the...

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SPCs Unleashed E7: Reliably meet Customers' needs with Built-in Quality Jan 26, 2024

"You can build a hut on rotten ground, but not a skyscraper"

Niko Kaintantzis 


 

Ali, Niko, Stephan and Mark are on a quest to help agile change agents and particularly SPCs to grow their skills and impact beyond certification. In this episode they share insights from their...

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