Business Agility Foundations
Discover how business agility can improve performance, create efficient teams, and benefit your organisation.
Duration
Approx 12 weeks4 hrs per week
Learn the fundamentals of business agility and gain skills for a changing world
We live in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, and complex world. The world, the work environment, and technology are changing fast, creating more uncertainty.
Organisations that embrace business agility are able to quickly adapt, learn, and stay customer-focused. Agile organisations and teams are more adaptive, creative, and resilient. They work faster, better, and deliver greater value for their stakeholders.
Develop your understanding of the essential elements needed for an agile organisation
The four courses in this ExpertTrack will give you an introduction to business agility principles and how it can deliver better performance and value.
Over 12 weeks, you’ll explore the philosophy, values, and principles of business agility, the benefits and challenges of more agile ways of working, how organisational culture can enable business agility, and the environment that’s needed for an agile culture to thrive. You’ll be introduced to a framework to understand the elements needed for business agility and you’ll also discover how continuous learning, a growth mindset, and engaging others can support organisational change and create business agility.
Discover how business agility and leadership can help organisations thrive
By the end of this ExpertTrack, you’ll be able to describe business agility and know how to recognise it. You’ll understand the culture and characteristics needed to support business agility and identify how they relate to an organisation you are familiar with. You’ll also become familiar with a framework for business agility, and you’ll recognise the need for a mindset shift that is value, stakeholder, and customer-focused.
Finally, you will consider your own business agility journey and think about approaches that might help.
Designed by experts at the Agile Business Consortium and The Open University
This course has been developed by The Open University in collaboration with the Agile Business Consortium, a global leader and the professional body for promoting business agility. You’ll learn from experienced leaders in this field and cover a range of diverse and relevant material. By investing in your professional development, you’ll gain the skills and knowledge needed for teams and organisations to succeed in today’s world.
Please note this course is about business agility and the ability of organisations to respond to changes as a whole, rather than the iterative Agile approach to project management and software development.
Key skills you will learn
- Agility in an organisational context
- Characteristics of agile culture
- Ways to assess agile culture
- Value of a people-centric approach
- Team working
- Interpersonal development skills which support agile working practice
Learning outcomes
By the end of the ExpertTrack, you’ll be able to...
- Describe business agility and how to recognise it
- Explain the key elements of a framework for business agility
- Understand the culture and characteristics needed to support business agility and identify how they relate to organisations you are familiar with
- Understand the importance of a shift in mindset, with a focus on delivering value for stakeholders in an environment of collaboration, innovation and learning
- Consider your own business agility journey and think about approaches that might help
Experience required
This ExpertTrack is for anyone new to business agility or those with a basic understanding who want to know more.
Some workplace and/or team-based experience will help you understand the content of the course in the context of a working organisation (of any size, sector, or industry). The course material does not assume that learners are currently working. Past experiences will be just as relevant.
We recommend the courses in this ExpertTrack are taken in the order presented to develop your knowledge effectively.
Getting started
This ExpertTrack is particularly suitable for:
- Those new to business agility or those with a basic understanding who want to know more about it and how they can develop their own practical business agility for future roles.
- Those struggling to understand how to survive and thrive in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world.
- Those wishing to broaden their skillset and expand their Continuing Professional Development.
ExpertTrack course overview
Course 1
Business Agility Foundations: An Introduction
Understand how business agility and agile leadership can help organisations survive and thrive in complex environments.
1 test
3 weeks
4 hours per week
Course 2
Business Agility Foundations: An Agile Culture
Explore the elements that make up an agile culture and the culture change that’s needed to enable business agility.
1 test
3 weeks
4 hours per week
Course 3
Business Agility Foundations: A Framework
Deliver better customer value and team performance using a framework to understand the elements needed for business agility.
1 test
3 weeks
4 hours per week
Course 4
Business Agility Foundations: Engaging Others
Explore how continuous learning, a growth mindset, and engaging others can support organisational change and business agility.
1 test
3 weeks
4 hours per week
Prove you're job ready
Highlight the new, job-relevant skills you’ve gained and supplement existing qualifications with a hard-earned, industry-specific digital certificate – plus one for every course within your ExpertTrack.
- Learn the latest in your chosen industry or subject.
- Complete each course and pass assessments.
- Receive certificates validated by the educating organisation.
- Impress employers with learning outcomes you can add to your CV.
- Make your career dreams a reality.
Download a PDF
How ExpertTracks work
Join an ExpertTrack to master new skills in your chosen specialist area. Work through a series of topic-focused courses at your own pace, and pass the final assessment to earn a digital certificate award which proves your expertise.
Decide if the ExpertTrack is right for you with free access to the full suite of courses and assessments for a week.
Pay a monthly subscription fee of $39 for as long as it takes you to complete the ExpertTrack. You can learn at your own pace and cancel at any time.
Receive a certificate for every completed course and pass the final assessment to earn a digital certificate.
Use your specialist training to progress further in your career or build expertise in areas you’re passionate about.
World-class learning with The Open University
As the UK’s largest university, The Open University (OU) supports thousands of students to achieve their goals and ambitions via supported distance learning, helping to fit learning around professional and personal life commitments.
Established
1969Location
Milton Keynes, UKWorld ranking
Top 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020
This ExpertTrack is in collaboration with Agile Business Consortium
The Agile Business Consortium is the global professional body for Business Agility, with unrivalled expertise in the field. A UK based not-for-profit organisation and the brains behind AgilePM®, AgileBA®, AgilePgM® and AgileDS™.
Meet your instructor
Rod Willis is a Professional Executive Coach and Business Agility expert. He is an Agile Business Consortium Scrum Master who supports the agile community through conferences, courses and online tools
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