Slides from my presentation at CPID 2020 Festival of Work

1. Agile Methodologies to create
responsive learning solutions
Carlo Beschi
CPID Festival of Work 2020

2. Carlo Beschi, Agile Coach

3. Today, you will:
- experience an agile learning solution
- see case studies of agile applied to
learning initiatives
- receive concrete advice on how to
embrace agile in your own L&D efforts

4. How large is my organization?
A. 1 to 10 people
B. 11 to 100 people
C. 101 to 1000 people
D. 1001 people or more

5. What do we see?

6. What do I do for a living?
A. I work in HR, and my focus is L&D
B. I work in HR, but not focussed on L&D
C. I am a consultant, helping HR departments
D. I am a Scrum Master / Agile Coach
E. Anything else

7. What does this tell us?

8. Agile
… is a modern approach to
software development
- collaborative teamwork
- customer centricity
- incremental delivery
- short iterations (1 or 2 weeks)
- experimentation
- feedback loops
- continuous improvement

9. In my organization, do Scrum Masters / Agile Coaches
collaborate with the HR L&D team?
1. They don’t really collaborate a lot with each other
2. They collaborate, mainly on L&D initiatives for the Tech
department
3. They collaborate on a regular basis, on L&D initiatives
relevant for the whole company
4. We don’t have internal Scrum Masters or Agile Coaches

10. What do we notice?

11. Agile Coaches
.. are experts in agile software
development
- More and more organizations
having permanent Agile Coaches
- Scrum Masters are Agile Coaches
- Traditionally focussed on working
with Tech Teams and Tech dept.
- Usually very passionate about L&D
and very committed to their own
L&D
- Insightful overlapping of skills and
ambitions with L&D and HR
professionals

12. Use your Agile Coaches

13. What does success look like?
- Think about a few adjectives that you would use to describe a
successful learning initiative
- Feel free to write them down (or not)
- Select 3 adjectives and share them in our zoom chat
- You have one minute for this

14. What is emerging?

15. How
does
Agile
fit
in
?

16. Learning solutions aim to
solve problems and / or
target opportunities.
Agile can help tune, evolve,
and even radically rethink
our learning solutions.

17. Agile makes l&d more
collaborative, iterative,
relevant and fun

18. Collaborative
We collaborate (design & delivery). Our learners uncover new knowledge together

19. Iterative
We start small. We learn. We iterate (or pivot). We scale.

20. Relevant
People learn what matters to them, and to the organization.

21. Fun
We all enjoy the experience.

22. 2014, YOOX - Teaching New
Ways of Working
Part of a larger “transformation” initiative
Bespoke class based training, for tech teams’
members, other departments and exec
Designed & delivered together by external AC,
internal AC, Senior Manager, HR rep
Followed up by significant on-the-job coaching and
mentoring.
Great example of collaboration (with external
consultancy and Tech - HR)
Continuous evaluation and tuning of learning solution
(attendees feedback plus trainers debrief after each
session).
Fun but at times too fast paced

23. Start small
Start small. Always.
I can’t think of a single scenario where doing a first iteration on a smaller scale, followed by a sincere inspection of what we
have observed, before going “all in” would not be valuable.
In the limited cases where a first real run with a limited group of people is not an option use: dry runs, cyber ducks, mental
experiments. And lean on experienced practitioners.

24. Learning is a shared
responsibility
Agile L&D principle

25. Stefano Serra
“Italy is finally starting to embrace self learning”
● Traditionally, class based learning heavy (90%)
● Forced (COVID-19) to embrace remote learning
solutions
● Slowly letting go of “I need to see them” mindset
● Benefits of iterative approach even in most
conservative HR and L&D setups

26. Where is the pain coming from?
- Write down the main challenges you have been facing when
designing and delivering learning solutions
- Think about concrete examples
- Use paper and pen or take notes on your device
- Note: this is a personal reflection, we are NOT going to share it
- You have 3 minutes.

27. 2018, ASOS - Coaching Dojos
Grassroot initiative, later “rubber stamped” by HR
Deliberately specific target (53 line manager in Tech),
expanded on year two
Opt in approach
Strong focus on practice (vs theory)
Relevance (“I need this for my job here”, “I am so
happy to get better at this”)
Fun
Train the trainer kind of worked ...

28. Create a coalition

29. Learning experiences
are collaborative
efforts
Agile L&D principle

30. 2018, ASOS - The Academy
Large, ambitious. modern L&D program (4000+
people)
Sophisticated mix of learning options
Strong focus on Employee Experience - choose what
you like, how and when you like it
“By ASOSers, for ASOSers” mantra
Agile as a way to think big AND start small
Agile Coaches as facilitators for the L&D team
brainstorming and planning sessions
Great perk, undoubtedly. Not 100% sure about
alignment with specific roles L&D goals

31. We learn by doing
Agile L&D principle

32. Adam Harwood
“It’s all about putting the learner, the customer, at
the center”

33. 2020, Treatwell - Interpersonal
Feedback training
Company wide training initiative (target 600 people)
Started onsite, moved online (re-imagined and
re-designed).
1 day, 16 people workshop now 4x2 hours sessions,
up to 12 attendees
2 facilitators (L&D and AC) + 1 assistant.
Collaborative. Iterative. Relevant. Fun.
“One more thing to do”, though.

34. Let the expertise emerge

35. Games are a powerful
addition to our L&D
toolkit
Agile L&D principle

36. Today, you have:
- experienced an agile learning solution
- seen case studies of agile applied to
learning initiatives
- received concrete advice on how to
embrace agile in your own L&D efforts

37. Agile, then?
- Go back to your notes (“my own challenges”)
- Based on what you heard today, answer this: “How could a more
agile approach make a difference?”
- Think about things you could do differently, in the immediate
future. Options you have.
- Write them down.
- You have 3 minutes for this

38. T h a n k y o u

39. Q&A
We have a few minutes today, and more time after, as well.
I will answer questions on this topic for the next 30 days, for free.
E-mail me - carlo.beschi at gmail.com - or use LinkedIn