Agile isn’t just a framework, it’s a mindset. It means adapting to change, learning from mistakes and growing as a team. But leaders often forget this and find it difficult to successfully implement Agile in their organizations.  

Changing titles and using the language of Agile is just the start of adopting an agile way of working. It’s more important that the people adopt an agile mindset and this means changing the culture of the organization. Without changing the culture, agile ways of working will never really take hold and the benefits will never truly be realized. 

What’s in the course? 

At the end of this course, you’ll be able to: 

• Define the organizational challenges of agile adoption and describe the Scrum Master’s role in facilitating culture change; 

Define cognitive bias and the four stages of developing competence, and describe why psychological safety is important;  

Explain the Scrum Master’s role in using the change model; 

Describe the importance of working with HR to drive culture change; 

State the components of the cultural model and its role in assessing an organization’s culture; and 

Identify what different cultures mean for agile and the transformation process.  

The course is aimed at the Agile Scrum Master. However, it is equally relevant to the Product Owner’s role in the team. It has four modules. 

• The first one defines agile (with a small ‘a’ and contrasts it with Agile (with a capital ‘A’) before looking at the importance of business agility. It then investigates the business culture and how this affects transformation. 

After that, the second module is about preparing for change. It looks at cognitive bias and the importance of a growth mindset, before explaining the conscious competence model. Then it explains the importance of psychological safety in a change environment and the Scrum Master’s role in achieving this. 

The third module focuses on implementing change by defining Kotter’s 8-step Change Model. It also describes ways of working with HR to drive cultural change and introduces the Manifesto for HR Development.  

Then, the final module focuses on organizational alignment by discussing Schneider’s Cultural Model and how this can be used to identify the gap between your organization’s culture and an agile culture. It then develops this further by sharing some resources to help you develop an agile culture. 

Getting the most from this course