Agile Leadership and Management

Entry requirements

Are you eligible for this microcredential?

To study this postgraduate microcredential you will ideally have:

• A Bachelors degree or an equivalent level qualification
• 2 years experience working in team-based projects or management roles; and
• A strong interest in agile management, leadership or business agility

The course material does not assume that learners are currently working. Past experiences will be just as relevant.

If you do not have a degree or equivalent level qualification you may find the PG level assessment challenging.

Is this microcredential right for you?

This microcredential would benefit anyone currently working, or looking to work in:

• Senior roles in business, the public sector or third sector
• Managers and leaders who are new to Agile or business agility
• Those in an established Agile environment but are struggling with the ‘culture’ ‘people’ or ‘empowered team’ aspects of Agile
• Leaders who want to improve their knowledge of Agile and are committed to seeing Agile organisational and cultural change implemented successfully

The course has a global focus and delivers transferable skills for any industry.

Months of entry

October

Course content

Learn Agile Leadership techniques to build, lead, and empower teams in this fully-online 12 week course

This microcredential provides a solid foundation and introduction to Agile Leadership and Management. Designed by The Open University and the Agile Business Consortium, it combines research and evidence-based training with good practice principles and tools.

The course will equip managers, leaders, and those aspiring to move into leadership roles with strategies and tools to support team development at all levels. You’ll improve your skills and understanding of Agile principles and gain practical leadership competency.

What is Agile leadership and how does it benefit your organisation?

Agile is a mindset and is used to describe an alternative way of working. By adopting an Agile approach, teams can stay productive and focused on customer needs, learning to adapt to increasingly complex and uncertain environments while also building resilience and sustainability for better outcomes.

Using practice and research-based strategies, you’ll build your skills and knowledge of Agile working, which will help you to:

• increase your leadership effectiveness
• improve team engagement and cohesion
• improve communication across teams and leadership levels
• reduce workplace stress
• reduce workplace conflict
• improve the quality and quantity of production

Explore the key principles of Agile leadership and how to apply them to your work

This course is based on material from the Agile Business Consortium, who have scoured the best sources and engaged thought leaders to define Agile leadership through nine key principles.

You’ll learn the tools, techniques, behaviours, and principles of Agile leadership and increase your confidence and skills in leading, empowering, and supporting highly engaged teams in an Agile environment. You’ll also develop your emotional intelligence, personal resilience, communication skills, and self-awareness; all of which are important skills in effective leadership.

Empower teams and develop skills that you can immediately apply to your work

This course focuses on your own professional development and offers the opportunity to apply your learning to your own situation. You’ll create an action plan to convert your learning into tangible action; addressing challenges in the workplace and developing skills that you can immediately apply to your work to facilitate change, empower teams, add value and make a difference.

What skills will you learn?

• Emotional and social intelligence
• Effective agile team building
• Techniques for continuous improvement
• Value-based decisions and actions
• Improved self-awareness & resilience
• Appreciative inquiry
• Stakeholder engagement
• Strategic and systems thinking
• Agile management
• Active listening
• Facilitation
• Wellbeing and mindfulness

What you will achieve

By the end of the microcredential, you’ll be able to...

• Discover the key concepts and aims associated with agile leadership
• Recognise ways to improve your confidence and skill at leading people in an agile environment
• Explore Agile leadership tools, techniques, behaviours and principles
• Develop techniques and strategies to empower, steward and support highly engaged teams
• Demonstrate your communication and feedback skills and apply strategies for more effective ways of eliciting and utilising the feedback and wisdom in the team
• Reflect on your own Agile Leadership style and develop a greater sense of yourself, especially your strengths and positive traits
• Evaluate your own approach as an Agile Leader and how you work with your team and the wider organisation
• Create and implement an Action Plan to convert the learning on the 9 principles of agile leadership into tangible action in the workplace and at the point of need

Information for international students

This course is taught fully online so is suitable to be studied anywhere in the world.

Fees and funding

NA

Assessment