Uncovering the Essentials of Skilled Facilitation for Agile Teams

By doing so, they not only enhance overall productivity but also build a resilient, high-performing team culture. Agile Alliance offers many online and in-person events and workshops for our members. If you’re not currently a member, you can join now for just $49 per year. This course will contribute 14 PMI® Professional Development Units (PDUs) towards your chosen certification (7 leadership hours and 7 technical hours). Two weeks before the start of the course you will receive your workbook. At the end of the program you can bind them together with the slides you found interesting and other notes you took during the session, to keep as a reference.

team facilitator in agile

Facilitation, as we know the general meaning of the term, is to facilitate something. This is an intermediate level course, and participants should have some work experience in at least one agile framework. To get the most out of this course, you will need to have completed formal agile training such as our Agile Fundamentals course and have at least 12 months’ experience working in an agile team. We offer an extensive follow-up program to all our students including two sessions with a professional coach. These sessions are there to help you get on your feet as an Agile Coach, but if you wish, you may address a completely different challenge with your coach. The only difference is the way the content is delivered, meaning that you can follow the online program from your home or office, instead of being present in a class room.

Learn the basics

It’s normal and expected for disagreement to arise when a group of passionate people gets together on a topic. Facilitation is so much more than running meetings; it’s a way to help people make progress, accomplish goals, remove impediments, and generally do great things. It’s truly a foundational skill that can grow and serve you well on a variety of career paths. The mindset and skill of the facilitator determine the outcome of meetings and large-scale collaborations.

team facilitator in agile

The facilitator must be able to dance in the moment and make adjustments to the process in real time that align with where the group is at and the event’s desired outcome. A facilitator is a person who guides a group of people through a process that achieves their client’s desired outcome. Everyone in the group contributes to, understands, and accepts the results because the facilitator supports a process that maximizes participation, creativity, and productivity.

What is Agile Facilitation and What are its Roles and Responsibilities?

They know this skill helps their staff make decisions and reach outcomes. Employees benefit from facilitation because their ideas will be heard and they will get an active role in decisions and collaboration. The future of leadership is Agile, and professional facilitation skills are a crucial part of that future.

A facilitator with a high-level of understanding of the subject matter makes the Agile facilitator much more effective and trustworthy for the participants. Therefore, it is necessary to have the right skills to be an effective facilitator of an Agile environment. If this is your first class with an ICAgile Member Organization, you’ll receive an email with a link to create your ICAgile.com team facilitator in agile profile
within ten business days of completing your class. After you submit your survey,
we’ll issue and send your certification to your email address as a shareable PDF. A copy of your certification will also be available for download at any time from your My Certifications page. The instructors know their stuff, are adaptive to the group and create a great collaborative experience.

What Is an Agile Team Facilitator?

Improve business processes by understanding organization structure and design. When you successfully complete your class and your post-class survey,
you’ll earn a certificate that you can share with employers and your professional network. Certificates are downloadable PDFs configured for uploading and sharing on LinkedIn. Understanding and effectively managing team dynamics is critical for Scrum teams to function optimally. Agile teams often comprise individuals with diverse skills and perspectives, which, while being a strength, can also lead to conflicts or miscommunication.

  • Facilitators can guide conversations effectively by asking open-ended questions and encouraging input from everyone.
  • Designed by key thought leaders who defined the discipline of agile coaching, the Agile Coaching certification verifies an understanding of the tools, skills, and techniques needed to coach agile teams.
  • A facilitator is a person who guides a group of people through a process that achieves their client’s desired outcome.
  • It is crucial to have someone take responsibility for action items to increase accountability.
  • The course gives you the much-needed skills to design and conduct collaborative meetings while leading teams toward higher maturity levels, more effective results, and self-organization.

If a particular technique isn’t being productive, you have a list of tools from which to choose. You’ll have a tightly scheduled plan to prevent the team from getting off track, and you’ll be able to gauge the success of each section. The team will also be more involved if they know how long each section lasts. People burn out quickly when they feel like they are just stuck dealing with problems indefinitely.

Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF) Schedule

Let us check out the other facts of Agile facilitation in detail below. In an increasingly Agile world, the roles of leaders are transforming. Agile leaders are not just task managers but facilitators, coaches, and catalysts of change. They empower their teams to self-organize, make decisions, and take ownership of their work. At Agile-ity Inc., we offer a range of Professional Scrum training courses that can help develop your Scrum skills.

ICP-ATF is one of two knowledge-based certifications on the Agile Team Coaching track. Through obtaining this certification, participants will develop an appreciation for the art of facilitation as key to fostering collaboration and enabling self-organizing teams. Participants will also build their facilitator toolkit and gain experience facilitating specific agile practices most relevant to their organizational context. Agile leadership should possess the skills to plan and conduct efficient team meetings to make sure that the team is working together with full dedication. The good facilitation abilities of the Agile team facilitator decide the right collaboration between the team to bring value and higher levels of performance to the organization.

Global Development

The earlier on in the session that someone speaks, the more likely they will talk in the future. These generate ideas for what the team would like to discuss in the retrospective. Retrospectives should produce identifiable problems and actionable solutions from the team.

team facilitator in agile

These are to remind everyone that while there is always room for improvement, that there is a lot to be thankful for and to appreciate. Feedback for the facilitator is always appreciated and, when time allows, the group members discuss their thoughts and feelings with the facilitator about the process that everyone just went through. The team then goes forward with greater clarity and an agreed-upon plan for their next few weeks of work, sprint or iteration. Scrum Alliance-certified educators help you build your facilitation muscles in the Agile Coaching Skills – Certified Facilitator (ACS-CF) course. Grow as a facilitator who supports group events so people can make a difference at their workplaces. Please use the form at the bottom of this page to get an email when the ACS course is open for registration.

Online Event

The fourth step to master agile team facilitation is to reflect and improve on your facilitation practice. Reflection and improvement enable you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, learn from successes and failures, enhance skills, expand knowledge, and adapt to changing situations. To do this, you can ask for feedback from participants, co-facilitators, or observers after each session.

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