SPCs Unleashed S2E11 - The Dual Operating System in Practice Mar 29, 2025

“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 Neck


 

What happens when an organization outgrows the myth that “all you need is cross-functional teams”? In this episode of SPCs U...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E10 - Designing for Distance: Remote Facilitation Done Right Mar 22, 2025

“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 Richards


 

Remote facilitation may feel like juggling blindfolded—especially when every participant has a muted mic and a...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E9 - Sparking Change through Scaled Retrospectives Mar 15, 2025

“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 a senior stakeholder dropped that bombshell mid-retro, chaos threatened to derail...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E8 - Mastering Distributed PI Planning Mar 12, 2025

“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 Neck


 

If you’ve ever believed that failing once in remote PI Planning means catastrophe, this episode of SPCs Unleashed proves otherwise. Mar...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E7 - Dashboards and ART Insights Mar 11, 2025
 

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 delve into the strategic role of dashboards in improving...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E6: Change Management and the Implementation Roadmap Mar 11, 2025

“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, implementing, and managing changes within an organization as it adopts SAFe pract...

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Small Shifts, Big Impact: Transforming Portfolio Management without the Cliff Dive Jan 28, 2025

“If people do not share a common vision, and do not share common mental models about the business reality within which they operate, empowering people will only increase organizational stress and the burden of management to maintain coherence and direction.”

Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline


 ...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E5 - Alignment, Adaptability, and Politics: The Secrets of Successful LPM Coaching Jan 25, 2025

“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 episode of SPCs Unleashed, Nikolaos Kaintantzis, Mark Richards, and Stephan Ne...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E4: Mastering PI Planning - Leadership Beyond the Framework Jan 18, 2025

"PI Planning is where the framework meets reality—it’s a test of alignment, collaboration, and leadership."
Stephan Neck


 

In this episode of SPCs Unleashed, hosts Stephan Neck, Niko Kaintantzis, and Ali Hajou explore one of SAFe's cornerstone activities: PI Planning. The trio leads an engagi...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E3: Facilitation - The Catalyst for Change Jan 11, 2025

"A facilitator lights the spark of collaboration, then steps back to let the fire grow"
Stephan Neck


 

In this episode of SPCs Unleashed, hosts Mark Richards, Niko Kaintantzis, and Stephan Neck delve into the art and science of facilitation—a skill often confused with coaching yet distinct in...

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SPCs Unleashed S2E2 - Guiding Without Giving Answers - Redefining Coaching as a Skill Jan 02, 2025

“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 Stephan Neck explore coaching—its essence, techniques, and the subtle distinction...

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Shaping Portfolio Agility E13 - Evan Leybourn on the Vicious and Virtuous Cycles of Change Jan 02, 2025

“Just as delegation is a skill that can get taught to leaders and often is, the ability to take ownership is a skill that needs to be developed in people, and organizations often do not invest in training that.” 

Evan Leybourn


 

In this episode, we are joined by Evan Leybourn, the founder a...

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