Duration
2 days
Overview
Are you a ScrumMaster or Agile Coach looking to improve your facilitation skills? Much of the work on Agile projects happens in group sessions: team members collaborate to identify and prioritise stories, plan work to be done, elaborate stories, identify risks and issues, communicate progress in stand-ups and other shared activities.
Working in collaborative self-organising teams can be challenging and it is important that all team members understand the group dynamics involved and how to effectively facilitate these sessions. That’s where our Agile Team Facilitation program comes in.
Learn how collaborative workshops can be planned, organised and run; and how each team member can contribute to achieving maximum effectiveness - while identifying potential pitfalls and how to avoid and address them. This program will also help you learn about your role in building capability across the wider team.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- Facilitate workshops and Agile ceremonies
- Explain the importance of empowerment and collaboration
- Facilitate collaboration within an Agile team
- Explain the Agile mindset and the value of Agile coaching
- Use health checks to explore team effectiveness, building on team strengths and tackling impediments
Content
The role of an Agile Team Facilitator
The primary role of the Agile team Facilitator is to empower the Agile team toward a successful outcome. This requires identifying common hurdles to the implementation of key Agile practices, as well as helping teams overcome their own hurdles and successfully execute the practices. This topic delves deeply into applying the general facilitation techniques to the key Agile practices, covering chartering, planning in the large and small, day-to-day iteration activities, showcases and retrospectives. The overarching theme is how to be an effective Facilitator in a self-organising, collaborative team environment, and how to nurture team effectiveness.
Facilitating meetings and workshops
This topic will provide you with the tools and techniques needed to facilitate meetings, collaborative conversations and team decision-making sessions for small or large groups. A large part of this topic will encompass understanding and practicing effective facilitation.
Meeting/workshop structure
In this topic, you’ll learn how to effectively structure a workshop and gain a clear understanding of the goal to ensure meetings are both cohesive and productive.
The mindset and role of the Agile Team Facilitator
The purpose of this topic is to understand the most fundamental functions of an Agile Team Facilitator including facilitating the Agile practices, fostering collaboration amongst team members and generally supporting a self-organised team. Facilitation is about leading by example and the Facilitator needs a deep understanding of how their attitudes and behaviours influence their teams as role models and mentors.
Agile Coaching journey
In this topic, you’ll cover the journey to becoming an Agile Coach and how a Facilitator can help a team become a high performing team as the team grows in maturity. The course is also intended for those on the journey towards becoming a certified Agile Coach. Successful completion of this course leads to the ICAgile Agile Team Facilitation (“ICP-ATF”) certification, which is a key step in that journey.
Agile Team Facilitator techniques
Understand the tools you can use in your role as a Facilitator in the context of an Agile team. Facilitators grow their skills by facilitating various team practices, through exploration of advanced facilitation concepts, facilitating larger or more diverse groups, and facilitating deeper conflicting issues.
Leading collaborative discussions
While the role of a Facilitator within an Agile team is rewarding, it also poses a unique set of challenges for everyone intent on supporting their collaborative team to improve efficiency and effectiveness by introducing Agile practices. In this topic, we will discuss and practice conflict management, listening, effective feedback and how to lead collaborative discussions. This part of the course is highly practical, participant-led module which allows participants to share their experiences, learning and knowledge within a safe, facilitated environment.
Health checks
In this topic, we review the value of a health check and explore how to use one to look at team effectiveness − rather than compliance with a set of expected practices. We will use this to look at how to help the team to tackle impediments and build on the team’s strengths
Method Used
Lecturing is kept to the minimum necessary, most of the learning is achieved by applying the practices and techniques in group exercises. Participants can expect to both facilitate sessions and share their own experience, as well as learning from the experience of other participants.
Programme scope, delivery arrangements and suitability are confirmed during enquiry.