What makes my Certified Agile Leadership training valuable and different?
I’ve been delivering my version of the CAL-I class for approximately 3-years. I deliver it mostly as a private class, nearly 80% of the time, to client leadership teams. I’ve heard feedback from many attendees that my CAL class is a game-changing experience and quite different from other leadership classes they’ve taken. I’ve even heard this feedback from attendees who’ve attended other CAL classes and been disappointed with those experiences.
I’m not saying I’ve got all the answers or that this will be the best class that you’ll ever attend. But what I am saying is that, within the scope of becoming a better agile leader, I think this class “nails it”. Let me share some of the key differentiators.
Leadership Experience
The first thing that comes to mind is my experience. I once did some analysis of my fellow CAL instructors and ~2/3 of them lacked any significant leadership experience. But that hasn’t stopped them from running classes, teaching agile leadership, and granting certifications.
While I won’t name any names, that seems quite contrary to our agile principles and, at best, incredibly misleading. It would be like someone who’s never driven a stick-shift in a car trying to teach you how to drive one. Or someone who’s never written a line of production code, telling you how to do it. Can they do it, perhaps they can read the manual and try? But at the end of the day, they lack empathy and experience and shouldn’t be teaching something from a purely academic perspective.
I bring ~25 years of leadership experience, approximately ~15 of it in agile contexts, to the table. And this is in a wide variety of business and technology contexts. Point being – I’ve personally had to evolve into an agile leader and there’s very little I haven’t seen or done during that journey. And I welcome sharing that experience in the class.
Tackling the Thornier Gaps in Leadership Excellence
Every leader thinks they’re great at giving feedback, or at communicating, or in coaching their teams. But the harsh reality is that most truly “suck” at it. And instead of working on these “softer skills”, they’re more focused on technology tactics and short-term planning.
However, we’ll tackle these thornier challenges fully in the class. And not only academically, but you’ll get the chance to practice your skills in each of the following areas:
Giving Feedback
Understanding Powerful Communications
Effective Team-based Coaching
Redirecting your focus towards improving in these core competencies. And this is just the beginning of inspiring you to be a better communicator and coach at all levels of the organization. Even up.
Emphasizing an Inside-Out Approach
The sad truth in most instances of agile is that the leaders are a lagging force. Sure, they’ve instigated the move and are funding it. But they’re really not fully immersed. And they’re telling folks to “be Agile” rather than showing the way themselves.
In this class, we emphasize the need for leaders to go first. And that starts from the inside-out with shifting your goals, principles, style, models, measures, virtually everything. I know it’s a tough pill to swallow, but agile transformations have to be led and leaders have to change from the inside.
Leaders go first
Culture-shaping
The Leadership Circle
Are three areas where we focus. The Leadership Circle survey will give you insights into your personal alignment with agile principles so that you can close your own gaps. And we’ll also explore the critical role you (and your behaviors) plan in culture-shaping (or resetting) in your organizational contexts.
Not Too Many Games or Structures
Not that long ago, I attended a PAL class from Scrum.org to experience their material and instruction approach. The instructor had wonderful leadership experience and I was hoping to learn from his stories. However, the class was almost entirely a series of Liberating Structures and there was very little time to learn from the instructor. I found that to be a serious problem.
You’ll find our CAL class to have some experiential bits but, at the same time, we’ll also share some of my 25+ years of leadership experience with you. We feel that the balance of traditional learning, experiential learning, group learning, and modeling is “just right” within the class.
Wrapping Up
Our CAL class is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for you if you’re not going to be fully present.
It’s intended for leaders who are serious about making the transition to an agile approach and mindset, but who are struggling to figure out exactly what that means. For those folks, this is an ideal class and jumping-off point for a lifetime agile journey. In fact, I hope to see you at one of our CAL classes.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob Galen