Evolvagility. Transforming yourself as an Agile Leader, May 13-15 2019

This three-day transformational workshop by Michael Hamman & Clive Prout is designed for anyone – whether Scrum Master, Agile Coach, HR professional, manager or executive – who wants to grow their capacity for leading in the face of the uncertainty, volatility, and complexity which so characterizes the rapidly changing world in which we work, especially with Agile.

The workshop integrates nearly 20 years of experience in leading Agile transformation efforts, as well as our intensive work with a variety of coaching and leadership methodologies and adult development models, into a profound journey of personal leadership development.

As organizations, programs and teams strive to become more adaptive, so too must their leaders. And, whether you are a scrum master, an enterprise coach, a manager, or an executive leader you are a leader. As leaders, we must learn to be less reactive–both cognitively and emotionally–to deviations from predictions and plans, and become more creative in sensing and responding to what is actually happening. This necessitates an upgrade in our own capacity for inner agility, which is our capacity, both cognitive and emotional, to lead effectively in the face of the volatility, complexity and ambiguity which so characterizes the business landscape we increasingly find ourselves in.

Evolvagility catalyzes just such an upgrade in our own leadership operating system to enable us to more powerfully lead within an Agile environment, whether a team, department or an entire enterprise.

The workshop addresses two interrelated aspects of this inner operating system:

Self-Awareness – Increased awareness of how you make sense of the information which is coming to you – what you pay attention to, what you ignore, and how by choosing to incorporate more senses you can get a fuller picture of what is happening

Interpersonal skills – To create alignment, commitment and direction among a group we must develop the capacity to create a shared context – incorporating the perspectives of all to create an integrated whole. It is only when operating from a shared understanding that actions will make sense to all and enjoy commitment.

Experential Learning

Rather than learning about agile leadership (through Powerpoint slides, tools and abstract models), participants in this workshop engage in an experiential learning journey that gives them insight into their own leadership operating system, how it operates and how to improve its agility. Through a sequence of catalytic activities, participants identify and choose specific changes in the way they operate that will upgrade their effectiveness in catalyzing agile transformation.

Target Audience

Evolvagility will benefit anyone in any of the following kinds of roles:

Scrum Masters
Change Agents
Agile Coaches
HR professionals
Middle-tier Managers
Executive Leaders

More generally, it is perfect for:

Anyone who is involved in leading Agile transformations or implementations (leaders, managers, change agents, Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters).
Any organizational manager or leader who sees the potential of greater organizational agility and wants to play a leading role in bringing that potential to life.

Learning Outcomes

Specific outcomes of the transformation you can expect from Evolvagility include:

A greater sensitivity to input from your emotional system (EQ), your field awareness and your intuition, and ways of making use of this increased sensitivity to deepen relationships and systems awareness.
Increased skills in generating deep and genuine partnerships — key relational qualities for an agile leader.
Increased ability to use relational skills (listening, inquiry, empathy) to support transformations in others.
A new way of relating to organizational obstacles that gives you greater effectiveness at working with systemic organizational issues.
Understanding the “reactive patterns” at the core of your own sense-making system and how they enable and inhibit your leadership effectiveness.
A clear and simple conceptual framework that supports you in holding together all that you have learned.
A plan of specific practices to speed the evolution of your leadership agility

Prerequisites

This workshop presumes any of the following:

That you have experience in coaching agile teams, scrum master, or programs; or
That you are a manager or executive leader who is in the midst of leading an Agile transformation effort; or
You are a Human Resources professional or professional coach who has at least been exposed to the ideas of Agile.

High Level Workshop Flow – Here is the shape of your 3-Day journey:

Day 1

● From Predict-and-Plan to Sense-and-Respond: the journey of the Agile Transformation Leader● Identify the 3 ”jobs” of the Agile Transformation Leader

● Growing deeper capacity in another through powerful conversation

● Your Personal Leadership Development Profile

Day 2

● What is your development path as a leader?

● Making deep impact through collaborative conversations

● Systems awareness: the key to catalyzing agility in human and organizational systems

● Creating a link between relational agility and systemic agility

Day 3

● The organizational context: how to “read” an organizational system

● Your Path Forward: Developing your own agile leadership ”stance”

● Your Foundation: Creating a solid plan and accountability for taking your learning forward

Pre-class Work