Certified with the right mindset

Doing things by the book, following the guidelines provided, being true to the framework being implemented and having all the right badges and certifications. Why are so many companies still struggling to transform the organisation to become more agile?

I have worked with different agile frameworks in my time, I hold different agile certifications and while they all try to teach us both about the mindset and the methods, it is the latter we take with us home to the company, it is the part that is easier for us to understand and take action on. Its a new way of working, its tangible and it is a matter of changing habits. So that is what we focus on once where are back behind our desk and working with the team.

We come back with new structures, events, roles, tools which we start to implement into the team, sprint by sprint. Top Management, expect us to delivery faster and more frequently, we feel the pressure to commit, to perform and to deliver. So we stick to what we learned while being certified, because we were promised it would make us deliver value each sprint and helps us work better together. We focus on velocity and capacity, on burndowns and dependencies, we set sprint goals and we use kanban, trying to keep a steady flow of work going.

But somehow we are still struggling, having a hard time adapting to chance when it hits us, not speaking the same language across the team and ultimately not really feeling the joy and fun of becoming agile.

Now here is a certification that might help you, it involves different areas that with guarantee will make you and your team more agile. There are no tools involved, no new roles, no big frameworks and no new structures to implement.

However it requires your full attention, an open mind, your feelings and emotions.

Here is the course content:

Teamspirit

We deep dive into what true teamwork is, what kind of relationships it requires, how we go from collaborating to cooperating. We talk about giving and receiving feedback, about creating a safespace for speaking your mind and being truly heard and respected.

Emotional Intelligence

We take a look inwards, how are we as human reacting in different situations, which feelings are triggered, how might we become more aware of ourselves and the impression we give others.

System thinking

Here we take a look outside the team, to understand the full picture of what make us an organisation/how are we organised. Why it is important for us to know what other teams/departments are doing and what does music have to do with being in a company.

Coaching

How do we help each other grow both as people and as co-workers. We look at some of the principles behind coaching, learning to ask the right questions, to do active listening, to help reflect and to shine light on new opportunities.

The course setup

The course is seven full days, spread out during a six month period, with assignments in between, to make sure you practice your learnings. In the end you have to write a short paper on your experience with using what you learned during the course.

Conclusion

There is to my knowledge unfortunately no such course available?!

But I believe it would help people to be more "agile" and get the true benefits out of doing agile.

Happy to hear your thoughts :)

Have a nice weekend

/Jacob Kingo

#teamspirit #agilemindset #beingagile #agile #teamwork