Agile for Executives Training (CAL-E Option*)

Executive and management engagement with people and teams is critical if you want to succeed with agile (simply ‘supporting’ agile is not enough). Managers and executives are often not included in core training for agile, scrum, and kanban for a variety of reasons. However, this creates a knowledge gap for many, not just in the tactical aspects of agile but also in the mindset and changes that will be required of them for success.

Throughout this course, you will have an opportunity to explore what agile means and its impact on your organization. Instead of a focus on theory that you can read in an article, we will look at the practical aspects of what agile will mean to you. We dig into aspects such as how agility will impact the job of managers, directors, and executives. You will have the opportunity to ask tough questions and raise the questions that no one seems to be able (or want) to answer. We will, although part of the answer involves the class exploring the root causes.

Students should attend expecting to be challenged and to pose challenges to agile ideas, all respectfully. We will consider typical agile leadership myths, the real ROI of agile, what drives success, and why the difference matters.

This course is designed for anyone who

• Wants to know how they can help people and teams in the organization succeed with agile.
• Is being asked to lead teams that are doing agile, but hasn’t had the training the teams have.
• Is interested in learning what they have to do to support agile teams and an agile organization.
• Likes what they have heard about agile, but wants to get past theory and understand what it actually means in practice – do you need to change? If so, how?

Learning Objectives

Who Should Attend

Anyone who needs to understand the impact of agile on them, supports agile teams, works with agile teams, or is interested in learning if agile can benefit them in their business area should attend. This course specifically does NOT focus only on software. Many organizations are using agile outside of the software space. Even if your organization is only using agile in software, it will only succeed if others throughout the organization learn agile.

• Executive teams
• Leadership teams, Directors, Managers, Change Leaders, and Organizational Decision Makers
• Key members of Talent/Human Resources, Finance, Purchasing, Project Management Office, Legal, Quality, Coaches, and others who interact with the teams who are, or will be, doing agile
• Anyone who works with people and teams in organizations to help them thrive

What to Expect

We take training and learning seriously. We respect the investment of both time and money that you are making to advance your skills. As such, we use the latest training approaches and techniques. We also bring energy and fun to ensure you have the best possible experience and learn as much as possible. In this course, you can expect:

• Brain-friendly training to dramatically increase learning and retention (instructors are Certified Training from the Back of the Room Trainers).
• Opportunities throughout the course to focus on your real-world situations.
• In-depth engagement with your instructors and fellow attendees. If you are looking for a dry lecture (we use zero slides), this class is NOT for you!
• Interactive, fun, and experiential learning — increasing safety and retention — laughing helps learning.
• Challenging work with others that focuses on your real organizational issues.

Virtual Training:

• Our training is currently happening virtually in most cases. We use extremely interactive tools, learning canvases, and methods to boost the fun and learning. If you are looking for in-person training at your location, please contact us to discuss options.
• We have specifically designed all of our training for live-instructor, virtually led classes. We know there are (still) virtual training skeptics. Some have tried virtual training and just watched piles of videos or listened as people clicked through slides (we never use slides).
• We work through in-depth and fun (really) exercises throughout the course in small groups.
• But don’t just take our word for it – we are 100% glad to take you through a live lesson and show you how we teach. If it works for you, great! We can see about moving forward. If not, we can point you to someone that is a better fit based on your needs – no joke!
• Additionally, we send every student (direct to their home or shipping location) a color, in-depth course workbook and materials. We considered just sending some electronic files, but we have had way too many students reach out to thank us for something “real” in a virtual world.

Details

Next Steps