Business Agility Now Podcast (Scaled Agile)

It’s not uncommon for Agile teams to encounter challenges as they try to improve efficiency in their product delivery flow. In this episode, Mahesh Varadharajan, SPCT and SAFe practice lead at KnowledgeHut explains why this happens and offers some insights and tips on how to overcome those challenges. Like what you hear? Connect with Mahesh on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Many things can go wrong—and right—in an Agile transformation. In today’s episode, Enterprise Agile Coach and SPCT Ray Angelone shares his succinct wisdom about how to handle those existing and potential challenges.

Like what you hear? Connect with Ray on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

That’s not a typo in the episode title, it’s a thing. So, what exactly is an Agile Release Tram and how can it provide value to your organization? Em Campbell-Pretty, CEO of Pretty Agile, and SPCT and SAFe Fellow, explains. Like what you hear? Connect with Em on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Many large finance and technology companies are vying for market share in a very competitive space. In this 50th episode of the SAFe Business Agility Podcast, we talk with Oden Hughes from American Express. She joins us to discuss what the company is doing to improve its business and technical agility and provide the best customer experience.

What’s the best way to get people to love your product when you release it? Deema Dajani, Product Management Director at Scaled Agile has some tips to consider before you even start building it. Like what you hear? Connect with Deema on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

How is moving a couch the perfect metaphor for joint problem-solving and joint cognition? Gene Kim explains in this episode. Like what you hear? Connect with Gene on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Have you heard the news? 2023 is the year of the product manager. Well, it is according to Eduardo Alvim, senior trainer/consultant and SPCT. In this episode, he and Adam dive into why product management will be front and center this year—and what that means. They also discuss the five types of product managers and the importance of storytelling in product management.

Today’s episode about flow with Adam and SPCT and SAFe® Fellow Yuval Yeret covers a lot of ground. The two discuss why now is the time to introduce flow properties and accelerating flow at multiple organizational levels before launching Agile Release Trains. How flow metrics don’t just benefit organizations at an advanced level of Agile maturity. Why it’s critical to connect people who have an intimate understanding of operational work with the development value stream. And why Agile is carrying some baggage that’s not useful.

Shifting to an Agile way of working is much more than checking boxes for standups and user stories. In this episode, Harry Narang, transformation leader and Agile coach with Skillbook Academy discusses the importance of understanding the why behind Agile practices, rather than just implementing them at face value. Like what you hear? Connect with Harry on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

There are few things worse than getting to the end of a project and realizing that things just aren’t working the way you anticipated. That’s where SAFe® Principle 5 comes in. Hear from Natalia Kuzmina, Head of Agile Practices at S&P Global, about how using a system demo is a better way to evaluate a project.

Today, Saahil is back to talk about how to go from good to great with your strategic themes. He shares what kind of strategic themes he’s seeing in the field, what’s missing, and tips to make them better to drive success for the entire enterprise. Like what you hear? Connect with Saahil on Linked In. Explore SAFe courses here.

How well does your ART structure its features for the next PI? Harry Narang, a coach and consultant with Skillbook Academy, offers tips to craft great features and shares real-world examples. Like what you hear? Connect with Harry on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

More often than not, team members estimate story points based on time—something we’re advised to avoid. Jeff Wilson, iSPCT candidate with RTX explains why and shares a key tip to help teams correctly and realistically estimate their story points. Like what you hear? Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here. Read the Framework article on Stories here.

From the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) to Agile teams, collaboration is key to success. In this episode, Eshan Chawla, SPCT candidate, explains where else you can find that theme in SAFe and why it’s critical to solving complex problems. Like what you hear? Connect with Eshan on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Today’s episode contemplates a unique approach to address system team challenges. Tune in to hear SPCT Saahil Panikar describe the idea of a profit-to-owner for the system team and how it has the potential to generate powerful results. Like what you hear? Connect with Saahil on Linked In. Explore SAFe courses here.

An expert crew from Scaled Agile, Atlassian, and Accenture gathered at the 2022 SAFe Summit to discuss brand new SAFe guidance and the evolution of enterprise agility. Deema Dajani (SAFe Fellow & Product Manager at Scaled Agile, Inc.), Tracey Nott-Seward (Managing Director - Global Talent & Organization/Human Potential at Accenture), and John May (Principal Solutions Architect at Atlassian) joined host Alexis Williams (Global Head of Strategic Alliances at Atlassian) for a conversation that covered multiple industry hot topics, including: The latest SAFe® guidance on flow accelerators, Lean Portfolio Management, value streams, new releases, and more 2023 trends (and beyond) driving agile transformations Common misconceptions about enterprise agility Best practices and real-world strategies for engaging executives in the agility journey Hear first-hand accounts from Tracey, Deema, and John on how to embrace agility and overcome common obstacles during the transformation process.

From their origins in software development, Agile practices are expanding to business teams, including marketing. But making that happen requires a different mindset and tactics. In this first of two episodes, host Tim Shisler speaks with three Agile marketing experts to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between Agile transformations in technology and in marketing.

Learn the six responsibilities of managers in an agile organization, success patterns for rolling out a SAFe transformation. We’ll also be addressing the difference between System Demo and PI system demo, along with how to estimate Epics and Features.

At one point Phil Reynolds was the most published children's music songwriter in North America. Now he's CEO and co-founder of DevStride, an enterprise-level Agile planning tool that helps teams coordinate across complex work streams. Think the two careers are unrelated? Think again. In this episode, Phil shares how being creative and focusing on the end user (or listener) is key to collaborating, solving problems, enabling service delivery, and meeting your goals.

Listeners will learn the benefits of adopting Lean-Agile UX into SAFe and how to balance the roles of the PO, PM and Business Owners. We’ll also be addressing how servant leadership differs from traditional leadership and common antipatterns when writing PI Objectives

While lots of people are still working remotely, some are returning to company offices, creating hybrid team environments. What does this new normal mean for collaboration within Agile teams? We turned to two of our scrum masters, Madi Fisher and Sam Ervin, to find out.

In this series, we talk to customers about their field experiences with remote SAFe ceremonies and implementations. This episode with Rebecca Davis, SPC5 and SAFe enterprise digital coach at CVS Health, dives into fully remote, distributed PI Planning.

How are cyber-physical systems different than software and what does SAFe look like in that environment? Oliver Wörl, SPC at NTT Data explains and shares a tip for improving that system, one element at a time. Like what you hear? Connect with Oliver on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Welcome to this special edition of the SAFe Business Agility podcast featuring in-person conversations captured at the 2022 SAFe Summit. In today’s episode, we’re discussing the demand for digital healthcare with two experts at CVS Health: Zach Wanerus, Director of Scaled Agile Execution, and Matt Bergenholtz, Solution Train Engineer. Find out how leaders can stay connected to teams through big transformations, and learn why empathy is the hidden key to success.

What does high performance military training have to do with Lean portfolio management? Find out in today’s episode when Adam sits down again with Eduardo Alvim, senior trainer/consultant and SPCT. The two catch up since their last meeting and discuss portfolios, some trends they’re seeing, and how value, especially when it comes to things like PI planning, is more than just making money.

While prioritizing the program backlog is a productive exercise, it often triggers hard conversations and trade-offs. And it's an exercise that can seem counterintuitive to how people have worked before. In today's episode, Adam shares three tips to make WSJF easier.

Is design thinking just a buzzword? In today's episode, Adam explains what design thinking is and how you can start using it right now to make your job a little easier.

“I got to teach a group of high school kids some Agile basics. The kids went through a couple of iterations to design a classroom. Then they had to give feedback. And it was funny how some of them were afraid to say anything. So I told them, don’t hold back, this is Agile, you let it loose because feedback is good.” In this episode, Adam talks to Karen Lewison, a senior events manager who is part of the team that designs and executes the SAFe® Summits. Based on her background in marketing and event planning, Karen offers a different perspective on SAFe and Agile. She and Adam dive into topics including why SAFe and Agile aren’t as intimidating as they seem, why experimenting and continuous improvement are so important, and how positive thinking, kindness, and compassion contribute to a successful work environment. Like what you hear? Connect with Karen on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Learn how the US Department of Defense is using SAFe to build out a cyber-factory to defend against cyber-attacks. Understand the difference between leadership buy-in and engagement, why engagement is so much more powerful and how to get it. Hear answers to commonly asked questions around remote PI planning and normalized story points.

How do you get numerous stakeholders with different priorities and limited budgets to agree what to fund and how? Hint: the answer involves everyone in one room and some Monopoly money. In today’s episode, Vanessa Martens, Agile coach and SPCT candidate with Cprime, shares her experience and key observations leading a participatory budgeting event with an insurance company in Africa.

Learn about the benefits of using participatory budgeting in the public sector, and tips for adopting participatory budgeting in an organization. 

Release Train Engineers (RTEs) play an important role in aligning the organization. In this episode, we talk to Kimberly Lejonö and Carl Starendal, both former RTEs and experienced Agile coaches, who share their tips for RTEs just getting started in their role. And we’ll dive into some questions we hear from RTEs in the field around inspiring change across teams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs), and managing the flow of value.

Organizations know that it’s important to use various tools and approaches to build better systems faster. In this episode, Robin Yemen, Space Domain Lead at Carnegie Mellon University elaborates on that topic and offers a different perspective on specializing. Like what you hear? Connect with Robin on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Learn how suppliers in a SAFe environment differ from Suppliers in a traditional environment, how to integrate a large number of suppliers into a SAFe transformation, what to do about supplier dependencies over which you have no control and more.

In this Deep Dive episode of the SAFe Business Agility podcast, Melissa Reeve, SPC and Joe Vallone, SPCT and SAFe Fellow, explore design thinking, its nuances and how organizations can take the journey from a traditional product development approach to an approach driven by Customer Centricity and Design Thinking.

Without internal alignment on a clear definition of value, how can an organization quickly respond to changing customer demands? In this episode, Shawn Lowe, business agility advisor at Accenture│SolutionsIQ, joins us to discuss how to bring clarity to what value is, as well as its effect on customer satisfaction and achieving business agility.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Hofstadter’s Law: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” In today’s episode, SPCT, Gez Smith, offers some tips on how to make peace with the law by adjusting expectations during PI planning, adding your IP iteration to your ART planning board, and implementing a “not going to happen column.”

What do quotes from Spiderman, Adam Grant, and Steve Jobs have to do with SAFe? Find out in this engaging conversation with Adam and Anand Murthy Raj, SAFe Fellow, SPCT, and Managing Director at Gladwell Academy – Asia. They discuss what they’ve learned over the course of their careers—both inside and outside of SAFe. And they highlight the importance of being relentlessly curious, seeking discomfort, and remembering to enjoy the space between point A and point B.

There are lots of key roles associated with SAFe—Business Owners, Product Managers, Release Train Engineers, Scrum Masters. But probably the most ubiquitous is the SAFe coach, a role that’s elemental throughout all of SAFe’s core competencies. But it’s also a role that doesn’t have its own guidance article on the SAFe website. In this episode, SAFe Fellow Jennifer Fawcett joins us as we dive into all the different aspects of the SAFe coach and how they facilitate change.

Adam welcomes Aly Orloff, Lead Agile Instructor and Coach at Lockheed Martin to the podcast to talk about all things innovation. They discuss the importance of encouraging a culture of innovation (which includes letting go of your fear of failure) and considering whether a healthy appetite for risk might have changed the fates of companies like Blockbuster or Kodak. Aly also shares her experience implementing SAFe at Lockheed Martin. To close out, she leaves us with three tips to convince others to adopt the IP iteration. Like what you hear? Connect with Aly on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Today’s episode is for all the managers out there feeling like they’re no longer necessary after an Agile transformation. In fact, according to enterprise coach and SPCT candidate, Mikael Broomé, managers are absolutely critical for success. Listen as he shares some tips on what you can do as a manager to support your team during their Agile journey.

In this episode, Benjamin Scheffold, senior manager of Agile transformation at Deloitte shares his top tips for success in the three key phases of a participatory budgeting event. He also explains why preparation, adaptation, communication, and repetition are critical for everyone involved. Like what you hear? Connect with Benjamin on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

While the title release train engineer, or RTE, is specific to SAFe®, the role exists under different names, such as Agile delivery lead, and is critical to managing the flow of value in an organization. In this episode, SAFe Fellow Carl Starendal joins us to define exactly what problem the RTE solves, explore patterns and anti-patterns, and discuss the future of the role.

How do you foster innovation at an organization? Hazurasingh Siviya, SPCT with Temenos + Agility, is here today to offer three tips on just that—from looking at enhancements to current products and services to being a disruptor and adopting innovation as a mindset. He also highlights the importance of MVPs to drive innovation.

Leaders cultivate success by exemplifying behaviors that align with their organization’s values, and by integrating these values into their decision-making processes. In this episode, Audrey Boydston, SPCT and Scaled Agile senior consultant, joins us to talk about leading with intention, and why core values are so important personally and professionally.

Many organizations that develop and deliver software have been practicing Agile for a decade, if not longer. That hasn’t typically been the case for organizations developing hardware, until now. In this episode, Harry Koehnemann, Principal Contributor at Scaled Agile, joins us to discuss why organizations developing hardware are under pressure to deliver faster. And what guidance SAFe® 5 has to help them address these challenges.

Hear about Dean Leffingwell's keynote presentation at the 2019 European SAFe Summit - Digital Disruption is Dead: Welcome to the Age of Software!

Sometimes an Agile transformation is a lot harder than it needs to be. It can happen when an organization is launching an ART, or it can happen during something as simple as helping an individual team improve its demos. So how do you spot that friction and remove it from your transformation? In this episode, Eric Willeke, SAFe Fellow and founder of Elevate, joins us to discuss how tactics and different investments make it easier to do the work of successful change

It’s hard to practice SAFe effectively and achieve business agility if your key stakeholders aren’t fully engaged at the right levels. In this episode, Charlene Cuenca, principal consultant and SPCT at Icon Agility, joins us to discuss why business owners are critical to successfully connect strategy to execution—and deliver better business outcomes.

Is your funding rationale the best match for your organization’s MVPs and development value stream? In today’s episode, Joe Vallone, SPCT and SAFe® Fellow, describes the Real Options financial framework and why it’s attractive for funding Lean-Agile development. Read the article Joe mentions in the podcast. Like what you hear? Connect with Joe on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Lean-Agile practices thrive in a trust-based environment. And leaders play a huge role in creating that environment for everyone in the organization. But leadership skills and behaviors aren’t necessarily intuitive for all leaders. And leaders often don’t get the help they need to learn how to evolve and grow in their role. In this episode, Dr. Steve Mayner, SAFe Fellow and principal consultant at Scaled Agile shares insights he’s observed about leaders (and himself) while developing his Leading in the Digital Age development series.

Have you ever felt a lack of support from HR during an Agile transformation? You’re not alone. On today’s episode, SPCT and SAFe® Fellow, Michael Stump, argues that HR can actually be a big accelerator for business agility, and offers tips on how to make that happen by asking for support, sharing knowledge, and collaborating on experiments.

Coaching can be hard, especially when people are scared and skeptical of change. In this episode, Martha Ann Oliver, SPCT candidate, shares lessons learned and practical tips to stay resilient.

Like what you hear? Connect with Martha Ann on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

In this series, we talk to customers about their field experiences with remote SAFe ceremonies and implementations. This episode with Scott Frost, SAFe Fellow, SPCT, and senior business agility transformation coach from Accenture, dives into a fully remote, distributed ART launch.

Listen to today’s conversation in two languages—the first half in English and the second half in Portuguese. In this episode, Adam talks to economist Marcio Tambelini who is responsible for Agile training at B3 in Brazil, one of the world’s largest stock exchanges. Marcio shares why B3 decided to adopt Agile methodologies, his experience implementing SAFe, and the outcomes that the company has realized around speed, autonomy, and customer satisfaction. He also highlights why he treats value streams like small businesses, and the importance of customer-centricity and product-based budgeting. Like what you hear? Connect with Marcio on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

An expert crew from Scaled Agile, Atlassian, and Accenture gathered at the 2022 SAFe Summit to discuss brand new SAFe guidance and the evolution of enterprise agility. Deema Dajani (SAFe Fellow & Product Manager at Scaled Agile, Inc.), Tracey Nott-Seward (Managing Director - Global Talent & Organization/Human Potential at Accenture), and John May (Principal Solutions Architect at Atlassian) joined host Alexis Williams (Global Head of Strategic Alliances at Atlassian) for a conversation that covered multiple industry hot topics, including: The latest SAFe® guidance on flow accelerators, Lean Portfolio Management, value streams, new releases, and more 2023 trends (and beyond) driving agile transformations Common misconceptions about enterprise agility Best practices and real-world strategies for engaging executives in the agility journey Hear first-hand accounts from Tracey, Deema, and John on how to embrace agility and overcome common obstacles during the transformation process.

When an organization is building a product for its customers, why does predictability rise to the top as most important? Javier Morillo, SPCT candidate and Agile coach at Estratecno explains. Like what you hear? Connect with Javier on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

In today’s episode, Adam sits down with Tegan Harbridge from Easy Agile. After getting her expert opinion on how the 2023 SAFe® Summit Nashville holds up from an event design perspective, the two dive into conversation. They discuss the importance of knowing that you can’t be everything to everyone, accepting that not all feedback is created equal, and answering the question of why you’re doing what you’re doing—in SAFe, and in life. Like what you hear? Check out Easy Agile. Explore SAFe courses here.

Earlier this year, we introduced new updates to SAFe® 5, including the new 5.1 Big Picture, several new articles, improvements to existing articles, and more. Andrew Sales, member of the Framework team and SAFe Fellow joins us to share details about the evolution of SAFe and explain why we’ve taken a slightly different approach with this release.

“Why do we do PI Planning? It’s so expensive.” When a leader or manager asks that question, how do you respond? Alex Menzinsky, an SPC, RTE, and Agile Coach in Spain shares his very convincing answer in today’s episode. Like what you hear? Connect with Alex on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Agile estimation is a balancing act and it’s important to understand the larger purpose behind it. Amogh Joshi with Advance Agility, a Scaled Agile Gold Partner, shares his tips to achieve that balance. Like what you hear? Connect with Amogh on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

How about a stroll down memory lane? On today’s episode, Eric Willeke, SAFe® Fellow and co-founder of Elevate.to joins Adam to discuss the evolution of SAFe over the years, what excites them the most about the newest revisions, and talk about how, at least for Eric, everything comes back to flow. Plus, hear why the skills that make for the best Scrum Master often aren’t found on a resume—and why that’s important.

On today's show, listeners will learn how the PMO is evolving in the face of business agility, hear about Dean Leffingwell’s new white paper on Enterprise Strategy, and learn how to create feedback loops between strategy and execution when implementing SAFe.

Learn how to integrate SAFe into a large ERP system to achieve business agility and the value of automation in these implementations

Implementing Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) is a complex journey—one that an organization might not get a second chance to roll out. In this episode, Phil Gardiner, SAFe practice leader, executive consultant, and SPCT with Applied Frameworks, joins us to discuss how organizations can successfully launch and evolve their LPM implementation.

From our 2019 Global Summit, we get up close and personal with our motivational keynote speaker, Jade Simmons, who moved our audience while teaching them how to “Move like a Maverick.”

Learn the meaning behind why there is no Portfolio Engineer role in Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) and how LPM is facilitated.

In the spirit of relentless improvement, how do you make your next PI Planning event even better than the last one? In this episode, SPC Marcin Cieslinski offers four key tips to make sure everyone is prepared to plan successfully. Like what you hear? Connect with Marcin on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Objectives and key results (OKRs) are essential in guiding an organization in its Lean-Agile transformation. But what exactly are OKRs and how and why should leaders use them? In this episode, Vikas Kapila, SPCT at Enterprise Agility Consulting, shares three business agility transformation OKRs that leaders can use to accelerate adoption and outcomes.

Senior Consultant at Cprime and newly minted SPCT Steve Adolph sits down with Adam to discuss one of his passions: the role of the architect and architecture in SAFe. Hear about why Steve says the purpose of architecture in an organization is to enable business agility, full stop. The two also discuss why good leadership involves courage, humility, and letting go of the fear of failure.

“Don’t come to the table with problems if you don’t have ideas for solutions.” In this episode, Michelle Jimenez, product manager at Scaled Agile, shares her tips for starting positive dialogue and creating a collaborative mindset in tense situations. Like what you hear? Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

So, you’re running your first participatory budgeting event and you’re nervous. What’s the best way to demystify the event for everyone involved? Deema Dajani, Product Management Director at Scaled Agile has some suggestions in today’s episode. Like what you hear? Connect with Deema on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Does presenting in front of a large group of people make you anxious? You’re not alone. In this episode, self-proclaimed introvert Robert Dunlap, an SPCT candidate at a telecommunications company, shares his tips to help you overcome your fears and teach a great class. Like what you hear? Connect with Robert on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

In this new series, we talk to customers about their field experiences with remote SAFe ceremonies and implementations. This episode with Hilla Knapke, director, enterprise transformation office, and Charles Fleet, VP of transformation from Travelport dives into fully remote, distributed PI Planning.

Defining and effectively managing value streams can translate to satisfied customers and competitive advantage. But what is value stream management and how does it relate to SAFe? In this episode, Richard Knaster, SAFe Fellow and vice president and chief scientist at Digital AI, and Marc Rix continue their conversation about why value stream management is important, and how it can help organizations succeed in the digital age.

On today’s episode, Adam is joined by Richard Knaster, a longtime SAFe® Fellow and a leading voice in the area of value stream management. Richard shares his own journey to SAFe and tells us more about the work he’s doing today: encouraging organizations to embrace SAFe through the adoption of Atomic Habits. And how breaking things down into manageable chunks of work can help anyone achieve their goals—whether it’s eating better and exercising more or successfully completing an Agile transformation. Like what you hear? Connect with Richard on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Hear SAFe Creator and Chief Methodologist opine on the customer stories he heard at the 2019 European SAFe Summit.

Whether you’re a Release Train Engineer (RTE), a member of the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE), a Scrum Master, or another type of coach, artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance your skills. Roni Dolev Tamani, Lead Lean-Agile Coach with AgileSparks and SPCT candidate, explains how. Like what you hear? Connect with Roni on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Join Joe Vallone, SAFe Fellow and SPCT, and Don Reinertsen, author of Principles of Product Development Flow, as they discuss how to apply WSJF in a SAFe context using dollars, not just Fibonacci numbers, and how to involve finance in WSJF conversations.

"We chase job titles, and then we chase salary, and we chase status, but we don't chase our version of happiness and success." In this episode, Adam talks to Adele Leah, a personal branding expert and career coach, about personal and professional growth. The two discuss why a personal brand is valuable, why evolving your career requires continuous growth, and the importance of finding happiness in work. The conversation touches on having clarity about your skills, strengths, and values, and the need to show your human side. Adele also offers advice and insights on how to start building your own personal brand. Like what you hear? Connect with Adele on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

“Improv as a teaching tool connects people in real-time, in a real way, and it does it magically.” Today’s episode is … a little different. Adam is joined by Erin Diehl, founder and CEO of improve it!, a professional development company helping teams work better together through improvisation. Erin shares her personal journey and how she discovered not only her passion for improv but how it can be used to help others. They discuss the effectiveness of using improv to combat some of the biggest challenges facing businesses today and also share personal stories of burnout and the importance of self-care, especially for leaders. Like what you hear? Connect with Erin on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

“What are the right ways that we can change that organizational wiring so that people can actually do work easily and well? That's really the goal and if you can make that happen, that is the key to high performance.” In this episode, Adam talks to Gene Kim, author of The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, researcher, DevOps enthusiast, and founder of IT Revolution. The two discuss topics including the concept of the danger zone and the winning zone in organizations, the challenges and consequences of poor leadership on individuals and the broader organization, and the importance of codifying and sharing knowledge to drive positive change. Gene also shares his journey in the world of technology, what motivates him, and his advice for the SAFe community. Like what you hear? Connect with Gene on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Organizations that focus solely on the planning part of PI Planning are missing out on the larger goal of the event. In this episode, Scaled Agile Strategic Advisor Michele Lanzinger explains why. Like what you hear? Connect with Michele on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

What is one of the most important things an organization should do before launching an Agile Release Train? In this episode, Michael Krug, Agile coach and SPCT candidate, explains why assessments are invaluable to determine whether an organization is on the right track with its SAFe implementation. Like what you hear? Connect with Michael on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

How are your behaviors as a manager or a leader affecting others in your organization? In this episode, Carl Starendal, SAFe Fellow in Sweden, shares his advice to help you model positive behaviors, stay involved when shifting responsibility to someone else (decentralized decision-making), and invest in developing strong relationships with your colleagues during good and bad times. Like what you hear? Connect with Carl on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Launching your first ART is simultaneously stressful and exciting. Spoiler alert: There's no perfect answer to deciding which ART to launch first and how. Sometimes, it revolves around what's good enough to get started. In this episode, Adam shares his advice.

Leadership involvement can make or break any Agile transformation. In this episode, Alena Keck, head of the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) at Vodafone shares four detailed tips to help you keep leaders informed and keep the transformation headed in the right direction. Like what you hear? Connect with Alena on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Today’s episode finds Adam at the 2023 SAFe® Summit Nashville, where he sits down with David Gipp, an SPCT with Agile Velocity. After bonding over their shared experiences in the athletic retail space, and the value of the energy found there, they discuss the importance of outcome (not output), why the improv principle of “yes, and” is relevant, and how the “COVID pivot” is informing how the Agile community is working today.

How do you foster innovation at an organization? Hazurasingh Siviya, SPCT with Temenos + Agility, is here today to offer three tips on just that—from looking at enhancements to current products and services to being a disruptor and adopting innovation as a mindset. He also highlights the importance of MVPs to drive innovation.

In 1995, author and advisor Geoffrey Moore released Inside the Tornado, the second book in his popular three-part marketing series that offers strategies to get products into the mainstream market. Twenty-five years later, is the guidance in the book still relevant? In this episode, Dean Leffingwell takes over the mic to find out from the author himself—and to ask some other burning questions.

“We're starting to see that lightbulb moment in folks' minds to say, ‘It's okay to be a little bit vulnerable. It's okay to talk about some painful things.’ It's hard to do that within the government world because of the old ways of thinking and working, but we're starting to break those barriers down.”

In this episode, Adam talks to Scott Sinclair, Agile Coach within the U.S. Army PEO and Shawn Lowe, SPCT at Accenture about driving successful transformations in a government context. The trio dives into topics including the need for strong leadership to overcome cultural resistance to change, clearly communicating to explain the why behind the transformation, and the importance of defining and measuring the impact of the changes, rather than just monitoring metrics.

Like what you hear? Connect with Scott and Shawn on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here. This podcast panel was recorded in October 2024. 

---

On October 1, 2024, PEO EIS rebranded to PEO Enterprise to reflect a more modern, Agile organization that includes enterprise software and technology services. To learn more about PEO Enterprise, visit their website.

In today’s episode, Adam sits down with Markus Vogg, SPCT and global head of business agility at Capgemini Invent, and Em Sperring, SPC and business agility senior consultant, to discuss their Agile journeys. You’ll hear about their experience in bringing Agile to traditionally non-Agile spaces, like HR and accounting, and how that experience informs their approach to any Agile transformation—big or small. They also discuss the joys of working with intercontinental teams and share some advice they would give to their younger, pre-Agile selves.

As your organization progresses through an Agile transformation, how do you make SAFe—and ultimately business agility—stick? In this episode, Baptise Galea, manager of the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) for FedEx in Europe, shares three key tips around people, communication, and culture. Like what you hear? Connect with Baptiste on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

What do you do when you are trying to implement or improve new ways of working but management isn’t hearing your message? Fernando Razo, Enterprise Lean-Agile Coach at Softtek, shares his key tips for navigating the human element of those conversations. Like what you hear? Connect with Fernando on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Organizational politics. Skeptical leaders. Differing perspectives and assumptions on how the organization actually delivers value. There are lots of potential hurdles to clear when an organization embarks on a Lean-Agile journey. In this episode, Adam Mattis, SPCT at Scaled Agile, joins us to discuss how business architecture affects value stream mapping.

In today’s episode, SPCT Vikas Kapila explains why SAFe is a lot more than a framework—and why you should use it when planning your next vacation. Like what you hear? Connect with Vikas on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Learn how Airbus used SAFe to improve its operations, how value streams behave in a large solution environment how to conduct I & A for large solution trains and more.

“More and more IT organizations are realizing that there’s more to agility than just managing your projects in an Agile fashion … to deliver the value on your agility, you need to orient teams around outcomes to have them really relate to the business that they own and empower them.” In this episode, Adam talks to SAFe® Fellow Yuval Yuret about the evolution of product management. The conversation covers topics related to Agile transformation and product management, including how technology is driving change in the financial industry, the difference between how technology organizations apply product management compared to consumer product companies, and how a product operating model can help organizations become more product-centric. Like what you hear? Connect with Yuval on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

A key reason to organize around value is to get products to customers faster than your competitors. But the principle is also valuable when it comes to culture. In this episode, Amogh Joshi with Advance Agility, a Scaled Agile Gold Partner, shares a scenario that resonates with both benefits. Like what you hear? Connect with Amogh on LinkedIn. Explore SAFe courses here.

Learn more about enterprise strategy formulation as it relates to lean portfolio management and SAFe 5.0, as well as how organizational agility gives companies flexibility to respond to unexpected global events like the coronavirus.