I’ve been designing and leading a unique training workshop focused on helping individuals and organizations advance towards an Agile Mindset and an innovative culture that is Agile. The framework I’m focusing on utilizes Scrum. This training workshop helps individuals and teams apply Agile principles and a Scrum framework to the work they do and ultimately for a culture of innovation in their organization that is agile and embraces design thinking and lean methods. Since this workshop is focused on the culture, it is recommended that all people in the organization or department share in it since all can apply some of the insights to their own work as professions, team members, or contributors to the organization and their clients. Many of these activities can be done in-person or remotely and templates help with this. One of my favorite collections of agile templates is found here from Miro. These agile activities can be done on an online or physical whiteboard.

How to Start Learning Agile & Scrum – A REAL Training Activity

DARIN’S IDEA TO GET STARTED WITH AGILE EVEN AS AN INDIVIDUAL (But ideally as a team)

Choose your most important big project:

  1. Create a backlog of tasks to do with each task on a sticky note.
  2. Break the project down into a time boxed series of sprints where you have a review with your stakeholders at the end of each sprint (perhaps weekly).
  3. Plan your sprint. Prioritize the tasks and stick onto a Kanban/Scrum Board you make out of paper or a whiteboard. Move the important tasks as you do them.
  4. Have a daily standup meeting (15 minutes max) at your Kanban/Scrum Board with your “team” or others to be accountable to and get insight from. Share: a. what you did yesterday, b. are doing today, and c. any obstacles slowing you down on your sprint goal.


  5. Reflect on your sprint with a retrospective to improve for the next sprint. What went well, what could have gone better, and what you can improve on for the next sprint.

We learn and develop the most from working on and reflecting on real projects. This could be a good way to start implementing Agile/Scrum into your individual work, team, or organization…and ultimately culture.

Scrum Agile Training Resources

In my research to design this new workshop I’ve come across some excellent books, videos, and online training that can be used with the training event or as a toolkit to help people remember the Agile principles, Scrum framework, and tangible actions they can take to work in a more meaningful and agile way with others. Here are some of my favorite resources.

This is an engaging Scrum overview video. It is one of the best I’ve found to try to explain Scrum in about 7 minutes to people who may be newer to the Agile framework.

This is a nice micro-sized online course SCRUM 101 video series that covers the basics. Each video is just a few minutes long and is visual to help you understand the SCRUM concept and apply the framework to your own project.

Agile Books

I recommend Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. This book would be worth reading for people who are getting started with Agile. The book is a motivating one. You really become convinced about the need for Agile and utilizing the Scrum framework through the stories and examples. The training workshop can be designed using the “how to” guide from the Appendix as a simple way to get started and organized.

10 Steps to Begin Implementing Scrum and be more Agile

(From Appendix of SCRUM: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff & J.J. Sutherland)

  1. Pick a Product Owner
  2. Pick a Team
  3. Pick a Scrum Master
  4. Create and Prioritize a Product Backlog
  5. Refine and Estimate the Product Backlog
  6. Sprint Planning
  7. Make Work Visible
  8. Daily Stand-up or Daily Scrum
  9. Sprint Review or Sprint Demo
  10. Sprint Retrospective

The videos and books I list here are the best that I’ve found in my research to design a unique “culture experience” training workshop for people with a variety of experience levels with Agile. These will help you to learn and understand the basics and provide ways to get started to make Agile more a part of the culture of your organization and how professionals do their work in an innovative way. Please contact us if you’d like an innovative and engaging agile training for your organization.

From your experience, what have been some important concepts to learn to become more agile? What specific resources would you recommend? What training activities have you experienced that can have a positive impact?

Check out our list of best books on agile for more resources.