Competencies for Leading Agile Change

Faced with immense pressure to transform, »leading change« means being able to balance the tension between the status quo of a traditional world with the promises of an agile world.

This requires operational expertise in three competence fields: (1) transformation management (2) agile approach (3) coaching and consulting.

In four compact, virtually conducted modules you will experience a highly condensed »best-of« of pragmatic approaches and tools that will enable you to become immediately effective in your company as a change leader.

 

Focus »Strategic Analysis«
Managing a complex transformation requires the ability to maintain a meta-perspective and act strategically. Analyzing the essential elements of an organization and managing the fundamental processes of a transformation are therefore key to any organizational development. A clear stakeholder management and the clean contracting (mission clarification) are essential for a successful setup of a change process.

Focus »Culture Change«
Sustainable development requires dealing with the „untouchable“ structure beneath the surface: culture. Participants learn how to analyze a corporate culture and use levers to develop it. They learn to watch out for the pitfalls of culture change and can apply culture models (such as SYNNECTA’s »spectrum of balance«).

Focus »Change Communication«
Both information and communication are important to »get the message out to the people« and listen to the response. In addition to accompanying information, dialog-oriented workshop formats (on both small and large scales) are an essential factor in moving the company’s stakeholders in a sustainable way. With the help of storytelling – including a convincing change story – as well as visual thinking (cf. »SYNNECTA Insight Map«), participants are enabled to communicate change effectively.

Focus »Conflicts, emotions, resistance«
People do not resist change – they resist being changed. Therefore, participation is essential to foster self-efficacy within a transformation. All resistance is essentially an unmet but inappropriately expressed need. Therefore, listening as well as »enduring« stressful moments as well as »holding the space« opens the door for a way out of resistance to change. Proven conflict resolution tools allow participants to apply this skill and navigate any difficult conversation.

Focus »Agile Frameworks«
Participants gain a deeper understanding of the most popular agile frameworks. They learn about the fundamentals of agile working and the differences to traditional ways of working. Participants practice the »Design Thinking« approach and apply the agile principles to example exercises. Participants understand how agile working can be translated and applied to non-technical areas and projects so that ambitious change leaders from non-technical and central functions are in the position orchestra agile change professionally.

Focus »Agile Mindset«
The implementation of »agile« is not possible without a change in mindset. Understanding exactly how to identify the mindset and move it towards the desired mindset is critical for a successful transformation. We discuss what is non-negotiable and what is »nice-to-have« when it comes to an agile mindset. Participants will learn to apply tools to assess and develop a more agile mindset.

Focus »Agile Teams«
Working in and with agile teams requires different skills than working in a classic hierarchy. Examples are group decision-making and role agility. We identify these skills, practice them, and provide guidance on how to use them successfully in a team in the workplace.

Focus »Agile Leadership«
Working agile requires leadership. Agile leadership is shared leadership. It requires excellence in dealing with complexity and promoting radical transparency. Participants understand what is required of agile leadership and how it differs from hierarchical management. They learn how to develop themselves and support others in becoming an agile leader.

Focus »Coaching«
Coaching, mentoring and consulting skills require: being present with empathy, listening and questioning. These three aspects are simple to understand, yet take practice to master. We focus on gaining mastery of these three skills using proven humanistic and systemic tools. A coaching canvas rounds out this session and ensures that participants will never feel »lost« as a coach.

Focus »Team Coaching«
Coaching teams requires additional skills compared to individual coaching. We discuss practical aspects of group dynamics, psychological safety and trust in teams as well as how to deal with tensions. Special attention will be paid to the dynamics of self-organization. In addition, a particular challenge of agile teams will be addressed: how to increase cohesion within the team and prevent team members from drifting apart?

Focus »Trusted Advisor«
The coach’s »standing« vis-à-vis stakeholders and the ability to work with top management is a crucial aspect of a successful transformation. Participants learn how to develop self-confidence in this regard and how to deal with self-doubt or the »Impostor Syndrome«. Advanced communication and negotiation skills complete the offering.

Focus »Facilitation«
Organizational change, especially agile change, requires formats for dialog and interaction in large groups. We review key facilitation skills and various formats such as barcamps. In addition, participants will be given pragmatic advice on how to effectively run virtual meetings and workshops so that they can design and run their own events.

For you – The Agile Change Leader

This is for you if you want to effectively facilitate change in your company.Our qualification is aimed at all people in companies who want to strengthen their transformational power in order to become a lever of change themselves – be it in organizational development, as an HR professional, interim manager, decision-maker or executive.

In order to keep the learning curve high between the modules, our »Leading Agile Change« qualification consistently promotes the transfer of the learning experience into one’s own everyday professional life.

Business Cases
Based on SYNNECTA’s rich experience in a variety of industries, participants benefit from »case-based learning«. SYNNECTA consultants share their own experiences from concrete consulting projects – including the application of the presented content (models, tools).

Learning Journey

  • Self-reflection: Handouts, templates and small exercises for reflection.
  • Peer supervision: Participants reflect on exercises and progress in peer groups.
Our agile training approach
The curriculum and training methodology that we use is based on agility. This means that participants constitute a self-organized agile team within the curriculum. Trainers provide a topic backlog, as well as necessary expertise for successful remote group learning. Participants decide autonomously the order and scope of each topic, the pace of the workshops, as well as the format for individual exercises (e.g. »Do we do this as a group or in sub-groups«; »Do we need more input or do we try it out first«).

Training from »the back of the room«
We consider ourselves to be learning coaches, not classical trainers. As topic experts, we provide our expertise when asked or needed, but allow the group to direct and pace its own learning. A key advantage is that participants take on the responsibility and accountability for their learning instead of delegating this responsibility to the trainer team. There is no opportunity to become passive or tune out. We keep a close eye on group dynamics and intervene when needed.

Learning by trying out
Key elements of agile learning are attempting many small experiments, learning by trying things out, and »failing fast and failing early«. The curriculum follows these principles. Participants learn by trying out new tools and methods immediately during the training in proven exercises after receiving minimal input. In the doing, the reflection, and the follow-up discussion, participants learn through experience and practice of the theory. Extra input is provided if needed and is included in the further reading.

Our Expertise

SYNNECTA has been accompanying people and companies through complex change processes for more than 20 years. You benefit from our broad expertise: in medium-sized businesses as well as in corporate groups; in German-speaking as well as international language areas; from many industries and sectors.
  • We teach you both the basics of change consulting and the most effective change management tricks.
  • We show you how to approach the transformation processes in your own company with field-tested models and practices.
  • We provide you with a learning space rich in impulses and interactions, where you can gain useful experience together with other transformation professionals and also mature personally.
  • We are committed to a humanistic view of people and think and act on the basis of our systemic understanding.
  • Diverse case studies and good practices from the field.
  • Experienced consultants who have been working alongside our clients for years on challenging transformation processes and who have acquired deep specialist knowledge in regular training courses.
  • Extensive experience with virtual facilitation from a large number of virtually conducted workshops (large and small group) and trainings (e.g. »Leading Remote Teams« and »Virtual Meet-ups«).

Daniel Goetz
E-Mail | Profile (PDF)

Anke Wolf
E-Mail | Profile (PDF)

Next step

Start: 26-28 January 2022 | 16-18 February 2022 | 16-18 March 2022 | 30 March – 01 April, 08:30 – 13:30 CET (5 hours)

Investment: 5,800.00 € plus VAT for 4 modules (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). Terms of payment: 30% of total amount due on registration, the remaining 70% du six weeks before start of module 1.

Registration and contact via our office team: phone +49 221 3909 3390, e-mail: changeleader@synnecta.com

Download: Flyer Leading Agile Change (PDF)