Agile for Leaders
Help Leaders Create The Conditions Agile Teams Need
Agile for Leaders is a 90-minute private workshop that gives executives and managers a practical understanding of agile, Scrum, and the leadership decisions that shape whether teams succeed.
Chosen by companies in SaaS, Healthcare, Government, Consulting, Financial Services, Retail, Energy, and more.
Leadership That Makes Agile Harder
- Priorities change so often that teams struggle to finish
- Too many initiatives compete for the same people and attention
- Leaders expect certainty that responsible forecasts cannot provide
- Sprint Goals are disrupted by avoidable changes and urgent requests
- Product owners, Scrum Masters, teams, and managers have unclear decision boundaries
- Leaders attend team events mainly to monitor progress or demand commitments
Leadership That Creates Better Conditions
- Explain agile and Scrum in business terms
- Set realistic expectations about planning, forecasting, and uncertainty
- Clarify what product owners, Scrum Masters, developers, and leaders need from one another
- Protect focus, limit work in progress, and support team stability
- Give teams appropriate authority while maintaining accountability
- Step in where leadership action helps and avoid interventions that weaken the team
Why This Workshop Is Different
What Leaders Will Be Able To Do
Explain Agile And Scrum In Business Terms — Describe why organizations use agile approaches and what Scrum asks teams and leaders to do differently.
Set More Realistic Delivery Expectations — Understand why plans should express uncertainty and use forecasts to support decisions rather than create false guarantees.
Support Scrum Roles And Boundaries — Recognize what product owners, Scrum Masters, developers, and leaders are responsible for and where leadership interference can weaken those roles.
Protect Focus And Team Stability — Make better decisions about priorities, work in progress, Sprint Goals, and how long people remain together as a team.
Identify Leadership Behaviors That Need To Change — Recognize organizational habits that make agile delivery harder and identify practical changes leaders can begin making.
How The Workshop Works
Agile for Leaders is a concise, discussion-based session organized around three questions: why organizations use agile, what leaders need to understand about Scrum, and which leadership behaviors shape delivery.
Participants connect those ideas to decisions about priorities, forecasting, roles, work in progress, team stability, authority, and accountability. The session emphasizes the issues selected during the workshop alignment call.
- 90-minute private leadership session
- Delivered live online or in person
- For executives, directors, managers, and transformation sponsors
- Configured around your organization’s leadership challenges
- Fits leadership meetings, offsites, and initiative kickoffs
- Includes discussion and questions throughout
Workshop Outline
- Business reasons for agile
- Agile planning, delivery, and feedback
- Scrum roles and decision boundaries
- Sprints, backlogs, and Scrum events
- Story points, velocity, and forecasting
- Priorities, focus, and work in progress
- Team stability, authority, and accountability
- Leadership behaviors to change
Resources Participants Can Keep Using
Participants can leave with a concise summary of the leadership behaviors and next steps emphasized for their organization.
Built On Decades Of Agile Leadership Experience
Agile for Leaders draws on more than 25 years of Mountain Goat Software experience helping organizations adopt and improve agile ways of working.
The workshop reflects the practical leadership guidance in Mike Cohn’s books, including Succeeding with Agile and Agile Estimating and Planning, along with lessons from working with leaders and teams in real organizations.
Participants receive practical guidance from instructors who understand both how Scrum works at the team level and how leadership decisions affect what teams can accomplish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Should Attend?
The workshop is designed for executives, directors, managers, product and technology leaders, transformation sponsors, and others whose decisions affect agile teams.
Do We Need To Be Using Scrum Already?
No. The session works for organizations considering Scrum, beginning an agile initiative, or trying to understand why existing Scrum teams are not producing the expected results.
Is This A Team-Level Scrum Workshop?
No. It gives leaders the Scrum understanding they need to sponsor and support teams responsibly. It does not teach the detailed practices a Scrum team would learn in Working on a Scrum Team.
How Much Scrum Detail Is Included?
Enough for leaders to understand the system they are sponsoring, the responsibilities of key roles, how work is planned and reviewed, and how leadership decisions affect the team. The session stays focused on what leaders need to know and do.
Can The Workshop Be Customized?
Yes. During a brief alignment call, we identify the leadership behaviors and organizational issues most important to your situation and adjust the emphasis accordingly.