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Agile leadership and management

Created in collaboration with the Agile Business Consortium, this microcredential provides a solid introduction to agile leadership and management and is ideal for managers, leaders, or those aspiring to move into leadership roles. You’ll enhance your knowledge of agile principles, hone your leadership skills, and create an action plan that you can immediately use in your work. By discovering best practice strategies and tools, you’ll gain the confidence and skills to lead, support, and empower engaged teams.

Key features

  • Develop practical skills you can apply straight away to benefit your organisation and teams
  • Focus on personal development through reflective practice and work-based or practical activities
  • Benefit from research and evidence-based training with good practice principles and tools
  • Designed by experts and practitioners at The Open University and the Agile Business Consortium
  • The course has a global focus and delivers transferable skills for diverse sectors and organisations

What is a microcredential?

Microcredentials are professional development short courses with academic credit designed to help you quickly build in-demand career skills and knowledge that you can immediately apply. Learn more about microcredentials.

Qualifications

TZVM850 is an optional module in our:

Module

Module code
TZVM850
Credits

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
15
Study level
Across the UK, there are two parallel frameworks for higher education qualifications, the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Northern Ireland and Wales (FHEQ) and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). These define a hierarchy of levels and describe the achievement expected at each level. The information provided shows how OU postgraduate modules correspond to these frameworks.
OU Postgraduate
SCQF 11
FHEQ 7
Study method
This microcredential is studied entirely online
Module cost
See Module registration
Entry requirements

Find out more about entry requirements.

Module details Entry requirements Module registration Study materials

What you will study

On this postgraduate microcredential, you’ll delve into agile leadership by exploring the Agile Business Consortium’s nine Principles of Agile Leadership. Over 12 weeks, you’ll cover the following topics.

  • What is an agile leader?
  • Principle 1: Actions speak louder than words
  • Principle 2: Improved quality of thinking leads to improved outcomes
  • Principle 3: Organisations improve through effective feedback
  • Principle 4: People require meaning and purpose to make work fulfilling
  • Principle 5: Emotion is a foundation to enhanced creativity and innovation
  • Principle 6: Leadership lives everywhere in the organisation
  • Principle 7: Leaders devolve appropriate power and authority
  • Principle 8: Collaborative communities achieve more than individuals
  • Principle 9: Great ideas can come from anywhere in the organisation

You will learn

By the end of this Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course, you’ll be able to:

  • discover the key concepts and aims associated with agile leadership
  • recognise ways to improve your confidence and skill at leading people in an agile environment
  • explore agile leadership tools, techniques, behaviours and principles
  • develop techniques and strategies to empower, steward and support highly engaged teams
  • demonstrate your communication and feedback skills and apply strategies for more effective ways of eliciting and utilising the feedback and wisdom in the team
  • reflect on your own agile leadership style and develop a greater sense of yourself, especially your strengths and positive traits
  • evaluate your own approach as an agile leader and how you work with your team and the wider organisation
  • create and implement an Action Plan to convert the learning on the nine Principles of Agile Leadership developed by the Agile Business Consortium into tangible action in the workplace and at the point of need.

Skills you will gain

  • Emotional and social intelligence
  • Effective agile team building
  • Techniques for continuous improvement
  • Value-based decisions and actions
  • Improved self-awareness and resilience
  • Appreciative inquiry
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Strategic and systems thinking
  • Agile management
  • Active listening
  • Facilitation
  • Wellbeing and mindfulness

Vocational relevance

The course will benefit managers, leaders, and individuals aspiring to leadership roles. It is particularly relevant for those in senior positions within business, the public sector, or the third sector. The content is valuable for both newcomers to agile or business agility, as well as individuals in established agile environments who are navigating challenges related to 'culture', 'people', or 'empowered teams'.

Created by leading experts from The Open University and the Agile Business Consortium

  • Katie Taylor has spent many years as a consultant working on a wide range of projects. She now uses this practical experience to promote and share better ways of working at the Agile Business Consortium.
  • Dr Advait Deshpande is a Lecturer in Computing and Communications at the OU. His work focuses on information and communication technologies, their impacts on various stakeholders, and business practices that shape their development and deployment.

This microcredential is in collaboration with the 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™.

Agile Business Consortium logo

Teaching and assessment

Assessment

You’ll take part in weekly tasks and discussions with co-learners to support and consolidate your learning. Towards the end of the course, you’ll submit a project or assessment demonstrating the skills you’ve acquired. This will be marked and graded by subject matter experts and make up 100% of your final mark.

Study support

  • Learn 100% online on the OU’s learning platform with a mix of video, audio and written materials
  • Engage in interactive learning through self-assessment questions, polls, tasks and reflection
  • Share ideas and experiences in discussion with other learners, building skills, confidence and knowledge
  • Receive support from mentors who guide discussions and answer questions
  • Study at a time that suits you with the flexibility to access the course from your desktop, tablet or mobile device

What you will gain

  • 15 UK credits at postgraduate level from The Open University* and a Certificate. Academic credits are awarded on passing the final assessment. These will be at postgraduate level 7 of the Framework for Higher Education (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) / level 11 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.
  • Additional benefits: On successful completion, you will pre-qualify to gain Business Agility Professional Level 2 – Practitioner status with the Agile Business Consortium. You will be part of a growing community of professionals, with access to a wide range of tools, resources, and events.

*Academic credit may be used towards selected OU qualifications. For more details, including eligible qualifications, visit Counting microcredentials towards OU qualifications. The credit awarded may also be used at another university, subject to the agreement of the receiving institution.

Course work includes

End-of-module assessment

Future availability

Agile leadership and management typically starts three times a year, in March and October. This page describes the microcredential that will start in March 2025.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.

Entry requirements

This postgraduate-level microcredential will benefit managers and leaders or those aspiring to leadership positions. You will ideally have:

  • a bachelors degree or an equivalent level qualification
  • two years experience working in team-based projects or management roles and
  • a strong interest in agile management, leadership or business agility.

Please note

  • If you don’t have a degree or equivalent level qualification, you may find the postgraduate level assessment challenging.
  • The course material doesn’t assume learners are working. Past experiences will be just as relevant.
  • All teaching is in English, and your English proficiency needs to be adequate for postgraduate study. As a guide, this corresponds to Level 7 of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). However, you won’t need to provide a formal English language score to enrol.

Course length

This 12-week course requires approximately 12.5 hours of self-paced learning per week, totalling around 150 hours for completion.

Register

Start End England fee Register
14 Oct 2024 Jan 2025 £800.00

Registration closes 13/10/24 (places subject to availability)

Register
This module is expected to start for the last time in October 2025.

Future availability

Agile leadership and management typically starts three times a year, in March and October. This page describes the microcredential that will start in March 2025.

Additional costs

Study costs

There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.

Ways to pay for this module

We know there’s a lot to think about when choosing to study, not least how much it’s going to cost and how you can pay.

That’s why we keep our fees as low as possible and offer a range of flexible payment and funding options, including a postgraduate loan, if you study this module as part of an eligible qualification. To find out more, see Fees and funding.

Please note, postgraduate and OUSBA loans are not available as payment methods for microcredentials.

Microcredentials

Most people pay for their microcredential with a credit or debit card. You may also consider approaching your employer to cover the cost.

Study materials

What's included

All learning materials, exercises and activities are delivered entirely online.

While certain content can be downloaded, some content is exclusively accessible online, requiring a reliable internet connection for viewing. Please consider this if you are travelling.

Computing requirements

You can learn from your desktop computer or laptop or take your learning with you on a phone or tablet. You’ll need broadband internet access and a desktop/laptop computer with an up-to-date version of Windows (10 or 11) or macOS Ventura or higher. Our OU Study mobile app will operate on all currently supported Android and iOS versions.

If you have a disability

The course is delivered online and makes use of a variety of online resources. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you in using a computer or the internet, you can contact us about the support which can be given to meet your needs.

To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our disability support pages.

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