Mark Shead

Cohort 1

Cohort 2

In April, we are starting a five-week class where we’ll study the key points from five business books, identify ways to improve our agility, and discuss how to apply them with our teams. This approach is probably the most efficient way to go from an idea in a book to real returns on your team. As part of the class, you'll get access to not only the summaries we review but hundreds of other summaries that you can use to drill into specific topics. Use the field below to view a sample summary.

5 Dysfunctions Book Summary

This white paper is a short description about what it means for a team to be Agile. Too often organizations get so focused on the practices they use to follow Agile that they lose sight of the reason they are doing those things. This short and concise paper will help point people back to the focus of what Agile is and provide a reminder of the "why" behind what it means to be Agile.

What is Agile? - White paper

Broad professional audience — content relevant across many roles and functions.

Project managers who organize and oversee execution of initiatives, timelines, and cross-functional delivery.

Study how the ideas from major business books can help your team improve its agility.

Agile Coach & Software Engineer

Improve Your Agile Skills With 5 Business Books

Agile Coach

Delivery Manager 

Project Manager

New business books are produced every year with great ideas and strategies that you could be using to help your agile teams succeed...if only you had enough time to read all of them. In this course we are going to introduce you to the key points from 5 popular business books and dig into how their content applies to your agile team.

Explore Agile Principles Using The Big Ideas From Popular Business Books

Course syllabus

We will meet on Thursdays at noon Eastern time

Thursdays

Little Bets by Peter Sims. Steve Jobs, Chris Rock, Frank Gehry, Pixar films and an Army Chief all know that small discoveries and insights can be the fuel that transforms an era. Learn how this approach support the Agile Principles.

Week 1

5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. This book explores the dysfunctions that hold teams back from working well together. With so much of Agile success coming from effective teamwork, this book will give you many strategies that will help make your teams more successful.

Week 2

Tribal Leadership by by Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright. This book shows how successful teams create environments where people want to show up and do their best.

Week 3

Good to Great by Jim Collins. This classic of business literature explores the principles that make for great companies. While the examples may be dated, the strategies are as relevant today as when it was published.

Week 4

Team of Teams by by&nbsp;Stanley McChrystal. This book explains how the army was able to transition away from top down command to empowering teams that can act with independence. The lessons are extremely relevant for supporting self-organizing teams.

Week 5

This class is for busy people, so everything you need to do will happen during the weekly hour long class. While you are encouraged to review the material ahead of time and answer some of the questions. We will discuss everything in our live class.

Work outside of class time is optional

Course schedule

Busy executives who want to use the learning and insight from popular business books to support, encourage, and motivate their agile teams.

Agile practitioners who need fresh ways to blend business ideas with the Agile Principles to help their teams succeed.

Business people who need ways to introduce Agile Principles in environments that more receptive to well known business writing.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Agile ideas aren't limited to software projects. Business books are full of suggestions and ideas that directly relate to following Agile Principles. These ideas will expand your toolkit of strategies to help your agile team better deliver for you customer.

Identify Agile Principles In Popular Business Books

Agile practitioners will especially benefit from identifying ways better communicate with project stakeholders using language and strategies and book references that resonate with business minds.

Expand Your Business Language

After going through the summary and discussion of the key ideas of each book, you will be able to identify which books will provide you with the most ROI to invest in reading the entire thing.

Discover Books Worth Reading

The interactions with other students provides valuable perspectives on the dynamics of agile teams as everyone discusses ways to apply the ideas being discussed to their specific situations.

Engage With Like Minded Students In Your Cohort

Students will get 12 months of access to a library of 300+ business books summaries to continue mining the best business minds for strategies to help your agile team.

Learn directly from Mark Shead

Mark Shead

Courses

Improve Your Agile Skills With 5 Business Books

Resources

5 Dysfunctions Book Summary

What is Agile? - White paper