What you will study
Throughout this introductory-level Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course, you’ll benefit from expert insight about the essential elements of business agility. Practical exercises will help you apply your new knowledge, and sharing your thoughts and opinions with co-learners will help you further reflect and deepen your understanding.
Delivered over four, easy-to-digest sections, you will cover:
1: Introducing business agility
- Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) – challenges and impact
- Business agility philosophy and values
- Drivers for organisational change
- Benefits of business agility
- What agile leadership looks like
2: Understanding agile culture
- The impact of culture in the workplace
- Understanding the elements of an agile culture
- Accessing the culture in an organisation you know well
- Interpreting assessment results
3: A framework for business agility
- A framework for business agility
- Agile organisational structures; recognising the power of teams
- The importance of relationships, group dynamics, autonomy, and collaboration in creating high-performing agile teams
4: Engaging others
- Agility in business based on continuous learning
- Developing a growth mindset, self-awareness, and a stakeholder focus
- Engaging others for agility
Please note: the content in this course also features in courses created by The Open University and the Agile Business Consortium, which are available on FutureLearn.
You will learn
By the end of this CPD course, you’ll have the skills to:
- describe business agility and how to recognise it
- understand the culture and characteristics needed to support business agility and identify how they relate to organisations you are familiar with
- consider your own business agility journey and think about approaches that might help
- explain the key elements of a framework for business agility
- understand the importance of a shift in mindset, with a focus on delivering value for stakeholders in an environment of collaboration, innovation, and learning.
Vocational relevance
Business agility is an important skill in today's job market because of the increasing complexity and unpredictability of the business environment. Businesses need to adapt quickly and efficiently to survive and thrive. Business agility is becoming a highly valued skill and employers are looking for individuals who can help their organisations stay ahead of the competition, innovate, and navigate complex challenges.
This course has been created by the OU in collaboration with industry experts, the Agile Business Consortium, the global professional body for Business Agility, who have unrivalled expertise in the field.
Learner support
There is no tuition on this course and all study is self-directed. Throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to enhance and reflect on your understanding by sharing your thoughts and opinions with co-learners.