Built to adapt
Agile ways of working for public services.
A day on agile ways of working: what agile really is, Scrum, Lean and Kanban, experimentation, design thinking, leading with intent, team design, psychological safety, change at scale and governing agile work.
- Level
- Immerse
- Learning time
- 11 hours
- Where
- Strategy and the future
- Price
- £249
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Leaders and teams adopting agile and new ways of working in public services
Overview
Public services must learn fast without failing the people who depend on them. This day begins with what agile really is, from Royce's 1970 paper and the Agile Manifesto to the difference between doing and being agile, then Scrum, Lean and Kanban, and Eric Ries's build, measure, learn loop. Design thinking and the Double Diamond follow, then leading through mission command and Team Topologies. It builds trust and psychological safety through Amy Edmondson's work, and engages people in change through appreciative inquiry and the Wigan Deal. The final part turns to scaling and the Spotify model, Beyond Budgeting, Laloux's teal organisations and agile in public services.
Aims
This programme aims to help leaders choose the right way of working for the problem in front of them, lead teams with clear intent rather than control, make it safe to learn early, and govern agile work so that public accountability and learning pull in the same direction.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Diagnose the kind of problem in front of you, and judge where your work sits between predictive and adaptive delivery.
- Set intent and boundaries for a team, and design teams around flow, cognitive load and psychological safety.
- Plan board assurance and funding for agile work that tests value, using outcome roadmaps and the lessons of Beyond Budgeting.
What you'll develop
By the end of this Immerse, you will be able to:
- Explain where agile came from, including what Royce actually argued about the waterfall and how the Manifesto's four values work as cultural bets.
- Explain how the three pillars of transparency, inspection and adaptation, supported by the five values, make Scrum's empiricism work.
- Distinguish a pilot from an experiment, and use Ries's terms, minimum viable product, validated learning, pivot and persevere, precisely.
- Distinguish technical problems from adaptive challenges, and explain Bungay's three gaps and why the instinctive response to each makes it worse.
- Explain the hidden profile problem and why groups tend to lose information that only one member holds.
- Use the NAO's four root causes of scope, planning, interdependencies and oversight as a health check on any programme.
- Explain why an annual budget for uncertain work fixes scope too early, and compare project funding with funding stable teams and products.
- Explain how public services can learn early and safely, using the Double Diamond and the discovery, alpha, beta, live and retirement lifecycle.
Built from 8 parts.
11 hours of learning.
- 01Being agile, not doing agileAgile principles, mindset and ScrumBitesize · Agile and New Ways of Working3 modules
- 02Flow and the freedom to testLean, Kanban and test-and-learnBitesize · Agile and New Ways of Working2 modules
- 03Starting with peopleDesign thinking principles and processBitesize · Creativity and Innovation1 module
- 04Clear intent, free handsLeading agile organisations and agile teamsBitesize · Agile and New Ways of Working2 modules
- 05Trust at the centreTrust and psychological safety in teamsBitesize · Team Development2 modules
- 06Change with people, not to themEmployee engagement and large-scale changeBitesize · Leading through Change and Conflict2 modules
- 07Agile at scale, honestlyScaling agile, governance and fundingBitesize · Agile and New Ways of Working2 modules
- 08New shapes for organisationsSelf-management and agile public servicesBitesize · Agile and New Ways of Working2 modules