Agile Thinking in a Changing Business World

Course Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are increasingly expected to embrace constant change and leverage the opportunities it presents.

While responses to change vary among organizations, forward-thinking ones embrace it as a catalyst for improvement.

The importance of agility in project execution and business operations cannot be overstated and should be strategically integrated, including in marketing strategies and initiatives.

In the Agile Thinking in a Changing Business World training course, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the key elements needed to enhance their organizations' ability to adapt, innovate, and thrive. They will learn how to think quickly and effectively amidst uncertainty, enabling them and their businesses to streamline processes and excel in a fast-changing and dynamic corporate environment.

Key features of this training course include:

• Embracing Agile Values and Mindsets to Cultivate Inner Agility
• Enhancing Personal Competencies for Greater Agility
• Agile Problem-Solving and Decision-Making for Teams and Individuals
• Cultivating Business Agility from Its Core
• Equipping with Skills and Tools to Sustain Business Agility

Training Objectives

By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the Agile mindset and its underlying principles, such as pragmatism, the power of choice and adapting to context
• Describe principles and practices to inculcate agile thinking
• Identify and transform current personal and organizational thinking which impedes agility  
• Replace dysfunctional thinking habits with agile approaches by practicing agile techniques
• Promote relevant and meaningful agile inputs into the design of corporate strategies
• Achieve organizational goals by facilitating adoption of agile approaches in others’ thoughts and behaviours

Training Methodology

This training course will utilize a variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. This includes:

• Instructor’s guidance and facilitation of learning, using proven techniques
• Delegates’ direct input, case studies, and exercises
• Short video-clips presentation and de-briefing sessions
• Discussion and activities designed to promote skill building via interaction among participants
• Activities and work on examples and role-plays to highlight concepts taught and allow participants to practice skills they learned from this course

Who should Attend?

This training course is designed for those who want to consider their thinking rationale and shift towards new and agile methods.

This training course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• Business representatives
• Member of technical teams
• Managers and leaders of business units
• Delivery managers and leaders of technical departments.
• Engineers and technical staff  

Day One: Agile Values & Thoughts - Develop Inner-Agility 

• Values and principles for agility
• Individual ‘status quo’ thinking habits that hinder agility
• The connection between organisational culture and agility
• Behavioural and thinking habits that constrain or foster agility
• Personal mindset practices to develop inner agility
• Techniques to replace old habits with new agile thinking

Day Two: Agile Transformation - Personal Competencies to Enhance Agility

• Challenges and opportunities in business agility
• Growth Mindset – practices and principles
• Roles & functions within empowered teams
• Skills for effective listening and collaborating
• Personal branding and agility
• Personal Agility Plan – preparation and execution in the workplace

Day Three: Problem Solving and Decision Making – Team & Individual Agility

• How to inspire team/group motivation?
• The Leadership & Mindset in Problem Solving
• Rapid Agile Tools: Applications in ‘problem & need’ techniques
• Achieving optimal leverage and critical factors in making decisions
• Agile decision-making: models & techniques 
• Agile Decision-Making Model: Application session 

Day Four: The Seed of Business Agility

• Business Agility: the foundations
• Complexity Theory: Application to the business environment
• Agile Business: Forms & Features 
• The importance of achieving agility in business
• Principles of Lean & Agile
• Embedding value-adding performance criteria in the workplace    

Day Five: Sustaining Business Agility: Skills & Tools

• Business agility practice areas: Scrum, Kanban, Agile studios, etc.
• Championing Organizational Change
• Empathizing to build customer value
• Changing paradigms
• Accommodating ideation and innovation
• Waste elimination: identification & elimination