“Food for Thought”

Agile People principles and work methods – need to form the basis for decision-making in a complex environment where the only competitive advantage is learning faster than competitors.

The importance of Psychological safety – what it means and how we can work actively to create a working environment characterized by a standard view of how we can unlock everyone’s potential by making it ok to experiment and make mistakes and learn from them.

How to balance an Agile culture with Agile structures – while supporting an emerging strategy where people are involved in goal setting and creating a common direction (via OKRs or other types of relative goals instead of fixed budgets and performance goals)

How to work on behavioral changes in social systems to achieve an Agile mindset and Agile culture – by changing structural impediments (annual budgets linked to fixed performance goals and rewards).

To develop a Learning Organization –  by enabling collaboration between silos.

How management can support an Agile organizational transformation –  How to assess the current organizational structure and design a new structure that enables business agility, maximizes communication and collaboration within and among teams and enables the flow of value.

Why Agility in Leadership is Needed  – An understanding of why traditional approaches to management and leadership don’t always meet the needs of our transforming, in particular, leaders will self-assess to determine how they might need to change their behavior and attitudes to serve the needs of 21st-century organizations properly.

Leadership styles that increase Agility – Learn different types of leadership styles and the impact they have on motivating behaviors to increase learning, innovation and collaboration

Personal Agility  – How to develop yourself as a leader through self-assessment, self-management and mindfulness.

Relationship Agility – Models for emotional intelligence in the context of Agile organizations. Develop an awareness of the different systems within organizations, their often hidden dependencies, and how conflict can arise when they have incongruent agendas.

Exercising Agility in key conversations   – How to practice inquiry & advocacy skills, including framing invitations rather than demands and asking clarifying, opening, deepening, and provocative questions. Learn to enable high-quality conversations as a leader instead of always participating in them.

The Nature of Organizational Transformation and Agility – Describe how transformation differs from typical sponsored change initiatives. Point out that transformation generally implies a change in purpose or strategy that is radical and systemic. In contrast, sponsored change initiatives are more limited and typically focus on the how and less on the what and why. Explain how traditional organizational change models designed for limited change initiatives may not provide all leaders who need to navigate transformation.

Why Transformation is needed for Agility – Understand how established organizations must transform to develop agile capabilities. Describe how transformation is different from typical sponsored change initiatives. Point out that transformation generally implies a change in purpose or strategy that is radical and systemic. In contrast, sponsored change initiatives are more limited and typically focus on the how and less on the what and why. Explain how traditional organizational change models designed for limited change initiatives may not provide all leaders who need to navigate transformation.

• Leaders or aspiring leaders at any level in an organization
• People at any level who lead or aspire to lead in an organization on a business agility journey
• Leaders who see the value of growing an agile organization, and are committed to developing themselves as agile leaders in order to achieve that aim
• Anyone wishing to learn about the paradigm shifts necessary to lead in adaptive environments and to develop relevant leadership capabilities.

This training is certified by International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile), a certification and accreditation body. ICAgile works with course providers to accredit new or existing courses against comprehensive and proven Learning Outcomes. ICAgile collaborate with worldwide agile thought leaders to develop learning programs that lead people to agile mastery. Learn more about ICAgile

Agile People is an ICAgile Member Organization and this is an ICAgile Accredited Course.

You will participate in a 2-day in-person workshop or ten online sessions á 2 hours for this training. 

Day 1 or Session F1-5 Agile People Fundamentals

Session F1: Introduction to Agile People and Important Principles/Tools
The foundation of Agile Peoples’ mindset is about the principles, values, methods, and tools we need to start using to release competence and innovation – and what we stop doing. We discuss your challenges and go through the certification assignment. This session is an introduction to the agile way of working and thinking.

Session F2: Psychological Safety as a Foundation for a Learning Organization
The importance of an approach that is permeated by security and confidence to increase profitability and innovation is emphasized in this session – we need psychological safety to increase creativity through a culture where it is ok to fail fast and try again. We play “The Psychological Safety Game” to facilitate the dialogue about difficult topics

Session F3: Emerging Strategies, Structures, and Goals
Emerging strategies instead of long-term planning, new ways of working with strategy, budgets, goals, performance processes, and rewards. Using value stream mapping to optimize flows in a system instead of working with resource optimization and sub-optimization of departments. Mindset Slider exercise. WoWs to be used: Beyond Budgeting, OKRs, Impact Mapping, VSM, etc.

Session F4: Building Conditions for an Agile Culture
In this session, we explore how you can create conditions for a fantastic culture where people can perform at their optimal level and feel supported and secure. The gap between structures and culture/values is discussed. Structure – Culture Misfit Role Play. The importance of country culture for an Agile transformation.

Session F5: Creating conditions for Change
In today’s fast-moving environments and complex environments, we are challenged as people and as organizations to be much more responsive and adaptable to have the capacity to navigate in complexity. How can we make sense of things when things keep changing? How can we make decisions and act when most of the time, we don’t have all the information we need?

In this module, we explore VUCA, try out a sense-making and decision-enabling framework for leaders (CYNEFIN), and explore what enables our organizations to become genuine learning organizations.

Day 2 or  Session L1-5 Deep dive into Agile People Leadership

Session L1: The Why & What of Leading with Agility
In this session, we explore the changing environment & dynamics that call for a different approach to leading and following.  We look into the misalignment between what managers think drives their people and what people – knowledge workers specifically – expect from the people managing and leading them.  Finally, we explore our own personal understanding and expectations.. what are some of the attitudes, expectations, and concrete behaviors we expect to see from people who lead with agility.

Session L2: Behaviors that Enable Agility
When you wish to make a radical change or transformation, understanding three things enables you to shift.  Where are we coming from, where are we now, and where are we heading?   In this session, we explore the evolution of leadership theories and which leadership styles and approaches they have given birth to.  We determine what is still relevant.. and what needs to change.  A big part of that shift comes from understanding the nature of Power & Influence and how the ways in which we gain power might be changing. Finally, we look into specific qualities & competencies we can cultivate and develop to increase our own personal agility.

Session L3: Knowing & Connecting with Yourself
If we cannot understand and embrace ourselves, we have little hope for fully understanding and accepting others. Understanding why we react to things in certain ways gives us the insights and ability to choose our responses better and change how we show up in our interactions. Leading others starts with developing our self-leadership. This session explores ways to map and become more aware of our own experiences. We dive into heuristics – cognitive biases – to understand how they work and influence our thinking, how we can become more aware of them and most importantly.. how we can counter them.
Finally, we explore specific leadership mind traps and how we can unlock those mind traps to show up in better ways as leaders.

Session L4: Developing & Leading Ourselves
Having gained some insights into how we can know and connect with ourselves to choose how we respond to situations and show up in our interactions with others, it’s time to put that into practice. We familiarise ourselves with the Clear Leadership model developed by Gervase Bushe and how to develop the four selves of the Leader.. the Aware Self, the Descriptive Self, the Curious Self, and the Appreciative Self.
We explore several different contexts where we can put these into practice… to better check in with people, give and receive effective feedback, step into coaching leadership, and defuse conflicts by creating interpersonal clarity.

Session L5: Skillful Communication
Communicating effectively, relating to others, creating and maintaining healthy interactions, having productive conversations, and ultimately the ability to influence others requires practice and understanding of the dynamics of effective communication. In this session, we work on the dynamics of effective communication through the lenses of several mental models: productive conversations and the power of compelling storytelling to move and influence others.  We explore three types of stories we can learn to identify and narrative patterns that help you tell compelling stories as a leader.

Your course leader and facilitator vary depending on location and dates. See more details in the events

We all have different learning patterns; some look for general knowledge, while others prefer to go more in-depth. So we have tried to build a learning experience that fits most.
All our courses are available online on our Agile People Campus, and you will be invited to Campus before the training starts. The course is divided into sessions with a learning theme. Before each session, you are asked to watch a 20-30 min course video and read some relevant articles.
In the training session, we will meet via Zoom and work on Mural, an interactive digital canvas. You will work in small breakout rooms with different exercises, and we will debrief discussions and activities in the main room. For many, the best learning experience happens when you share experiences and views with other participants.

If you would like to go more in-depth after the online session, additional reading is available on Campus. All participants can also read our books during the course. As a minimum, we recommend that you watch the course video before each session.

To qualify for a course certificate, you need to do a certification assignment to show that you understood the learning objectives. During the training, we will provide more information, and we believe you would need to spend at least 2-3 hours on the certification assignment.

We all have different learning patterns; some look for general knowledge, while others prefer to go more in-depth. So we have tried to build a learning experience that fits most.

All our courses are available online on our Agile People Campus, and you will get an invitation to Campus before the training starts.

The course is divided into sessions with a learning theme. Before each session, you are asked to watch a 20-30 min course video and read some relevant articles. You can also watch the videos after the training as you get access to the Campus for three months after the training.

In the workshop, we go through concepts, work in groups with different exercises, and share learnings, reflections, and experiences. For many, the best learning experience occurs when different views and experiences are shared. If you would like to go more in-depth after the online session, additional reading is available on Campus.

All participants can also read our books during the course. As a minimum, we recommend you watch the course video before each training.
To get a course certificate, you must do a certification assignment. We will provide more information during the training, though we believe you would need to spend at least 2-3 hours on the certification assignment.