Learning Agility in the Workplace Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Learning and Development Manager, HR Business Partner and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-150

Before you join: Participants should have at least two years of professional work experience and current responsibility for projects, people, processes or specialist work.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Learning agility is the disciplined ability to learn from unfamiliar work, adapt behaviour quickly and apply lessons to the next challenge. It matters when managers inherit new portfolios, HR teams introduce policy changes, project leaders face incomplete information, or specialists move into broader roles. Without deliberate learning habits, people repeat ineffective approaches, seek too little feedback and treat setbacks as evidence of incapability rather than useful data.

This course develops the behaviours behind learning agility: seeking candid feedback, testing assumptions, reflecting on outcomes, working through ambiguity and taking appropriate interpersonal risks. Participants use the Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle, Ladder of Inference, Cynefin framework, After Action Review and GROW model to diagnose their learning patterns and improve how they respond to new assignments. The course also addresses stretch assignments, peer learning, psychological safety, developmental networks and learning transfer.

Instructor-led delivery combines short briefings, realistic cases, group analysis, structured reflection, simulations and application planning. Participants work with examples such as a manager taking over an underperforming service team, an HR business partner implementing a new performance process, and a project lead responding to changing stakeholder requirements. Each participant leaves with a personal learning-agility diagnostic, an experiment canvas, feedback scripts and a 30-60-90-day development plan linked to a current workplace challenge.

The course suits professionals who need to adapt their own practice, develop others through change, or build stronger learning habits within teams. It is particularly relevant for managers, HR and L&D practitioners, project leaders, high-potential employees and technical specialists moving into wider responsibilities.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess personal learning-agility patterns using feedback, reflection and behavioural evidence
  • Diagnose unfamiliar work situations using the Ladder of Inference and Cynefin framework
  • Design low-risk learning experiments with hypotheses, measures and review points
  • Conduct After Action Reviews that convert experience into transferable lessons
  • Request and use feedforward to improve specific workplace behaviours
  • Create stretch-assignment plans with appropriate support, challenge and accountability
  • Facilitate peer learning conversations using the GROW model and psychological safety norms
  • Produce a 30-60-90-day learning-agility development plan for a live work challenge

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Recognise personal reactions to ambiguity, feedback and unfamiliar assignments
  • Turn setbacks into documented lessons rather than repeated mistakes
  • Ask managers and peers for specific, usable developmental feedback
  • Build evidence of growth for performance and career conversations
  • Apply a practical plan to a current role transition or stretch assignment

For your organisation

  • Faster adaptation when employees inherit new responsibilities or changing priorities
  • Better use of project lessons through consistent After Action Reviews
  • More productive feedback conversations between managers and employees
  • Reduced repetition of avoidable errors through structured reflection and experiments
  • Stronger internal talent pipelines for roles requiring judgement and adaptability

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain learning agility and identify the habits that support adaptive performance.

  • Learning agility defined through speed, flexibility, reflection and transfer
  • Fixed and growth mindset beliefs examined using Dweck's research
  • Learning orientation distinguished from performance orientation during unfamiliar assignments
  • Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle links experience, reflection, concepts and experimentation
  • Career stretch patterns reveal recurring responses to novelty and ambiguity
  • Psychological safety conditions that support questioning, candour and intelligent risk-taking
  • Personal learning-agility baseline established from work evidence and feedback

Participants can diagnose what they need to learn before acting on an unfamiliar challenge.

  • DeRue's learning-agility behaviours: feedback seeking, experimentation, reflection and interpersonal risk-taking
  • Separate observations, interpretations and conclusions when diagnosing unfamiliar performance gaps
  • Use Ladder of Inference to test assumptions before acting
  • Frame learning goals with SMART criteria and measurable behavioural evidence
  • Identify technical, relational and political factors in complex assignments
  • Convert failure signals into hypotheses for structured follow-up
  • Maintain a learning log using prompts for context, action and insight

Participants can use feedback and self-awareness methods to identify behavioural development priorities.

  • Johari Window identifies known, hidden, blind and unknown learning barriers
  • 360-degree feedback themes sorted by frequency, impact and credibility
  • Distinguish trait labels from observable behaviours requiring deliberate practice
  • Recognise cognitive biases including confirmation, attribution and overconfidence effects
  • Trigger mapping links emotional reactions to threats, assumptions and habits
  • Create if-then implementation intentions for predictable learning obstacles
  • Feedback request scripts specify situation, behaviour and desired future change

Participants can design controlled learning experiments when established approaches are insufficient.

  • Formulate testable learning hypotheses for ambiguous business problems
  • Design low-risk experiments using assumptions, measures, timeboxes and review points
  • Cynefin domains guide action when cause-and-effect relationships differ
  • Use double-loop learning to question governing variables and routines
  • Pre-mortem analysis exposes likely failure modes before commitment
  • Decision journals record rationale, uncertainty, evidence and expected outcomes
  • Distinguish reversible two-way-door decisions from high-cost irreversible commitments

Participants can convert workplace experience into lessons that improve future performance.

  • After Action Review examines intent, events, causes and adaptations
  • Structured reflection separates facts, feelings, interpretations and future choices
  • Critical incident analysis extracts transferable lessons from difficult assignments
  • Feedforward conversations focus colleagues on future behaviour rather than blame
  • Spaced retrieval and interleaving strengthen retention of newly acquired knowledge
  • Learning logs convert weekly experience into evidence of behavioural change
  • Schedule reflection cadences around project milestones and decision gates

Participants can create conditions for feedback, peer learning and productive challenge.

  • Coaching questions help colleagues articulate assumptions, options and commitments
  • GROW model structures development conversations around goals and next actions
  • Psychological safety norms encourage dissent, questions and early error reporting
  • Peer learning contracts define reciprocity, confidentiality, cadence and outcomes
  • Communities of practice share problem-solving methods and reusable knowledge
  • Knowledge after-action reviews preserve lessons before team members disperse
  • Manager responses distinguish productive mistakes from preventable errors

Participants can plan stretch work that builds capability without creating unmanaged risk.

  • Stretch assignments matched to capability gaps, business needs and support
  • 70-20-10 planning combines experience, relationships and formal development
  • Skill-will matrix identifies readiness for delegated unfamiliar responsibilities
  • Scaffolding plans sequence observation, guided practice, independence and review
  • Stakeholder maps reveal sponsors, experts, critics and learning resources
  • Job crafting adjusts task, relational and cognitive boundaries purposefully
  • Developmental networks widen access to feedback, expertise and opportunity

Participants can make informed learning choices when information, priorities and stakeholder views differ.

  • Sensemaking distinguishes data, patterns, plausible explanations and informed action
  • Adaptive challenges separated from technical problems using Heifetz's framework
  • Scenario planning tests responses across credible alternative futures
  • Stakeholder listening surfaces weak signals, constraints and competing interpretations
  • Boundary spanning connects expertise across functions, geographies and professional groups
  • Experiment portfolios balance quick tests, longer inquiries and resource limits
  • Ambiguity tolerance practices prevent premature closure under incomplete information

Participants can align their learning priorities with changing role requirements and career goals.

  • Learning goals align role requirements, aspirations and organisational priorities
  • Skills inventories identify adjacent capabilities for future role transitions
  • Development plans specify stretch work, mentors, measures and review dates
  • Personal board of advisers provides challenge, sponsorship and specialist insight
  • Evidence portfolios document outcomes, feedback, reflections and demonstrated transfer
  • Career conversations communicate learning goals without overstating readiness
  • Quarterly reviews update priorities using changing business demands and feedback

Participants can produce an accountable plan for applying learning-agility methods to a current challenge.

  • Workplace learning-agility challenge selected using impact, uncertainty and stakeholder criteria
  • Diagnostic evidence synthesised into a focused learning-agility development priority
  • 30-60-90-day plan sequences experiments, feedback, reflection and accountability
  • Success measures combine behavioural indicators, business evidence and stakeholder observations
  • Risk controls protect delivery commitments while participants test new approaches
  • Accountability partners agree check-ins, evidence standards and escalation triggers
  • Manager briefing clarifies support, boundaries, resources and review expectations

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Personal learning-agility diagnostic
  2. 30-60-90-day learning-agility action plan
  3. Learning experiment canvas
  4. After Action Review template
  5. Feedback request and feedforward script pack
  6. Stretch assignment design checklist

Who should attend

  • Learning and Development Manager — builds learning habits that transfer into work performance
  • HR Business Partner — supports managers and employees through changing roles and priorities
  • People Manager — develops team capability while responding to unfamiliar operational challenges
  • Project Manager — adapts plans and decisions when stakeholder needs or risks change
  • High-Potential Employee — prepares for broader responsibilities through stretch assignments
  • Technical Specialist — expands influence and judgement beyond established technical routines

Skills and tools covered

Learning agility assessmentReflective practiceFeedback seekingExperiment designAdaptive problem solvingDevelopment planning

Tools and standards

Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle, Ladder of Inference, After Action Review, Cynefin framework

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings, individual diagnostics, case analysis, small-group discussions, simulations, structured reflection and application planning. Participants examine realistic situations involving role transitions, failed initiatives, stakeholder conflict and uncertain decisions. They practise framing learning goals, testing assumptions, requesting feedback and conducting After Action Reviews. Facilitators provide models, prompts and peer critique throughout. Each participant applies the methods to a current work challenge and builds a development plan that can be discussed with their manager after the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least two years of professional work experience and current responsibility for projects, people, processes or specialist work. They should be able to describe a recent unfamiliar assignment, difficult decision, setback or role transition. Experience of giving or receiving workplace feedback is useful. No formal HR, psychology, coaching or L&D qualification is required. Participants do not need prior knowledge of learning theory, assessment tools or organisational development methods. A current workplace challenge will help participants produce a relevant development plan.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have professional work experience and a current or recent challenge that required you to adapt. No prior qualification in HR, coaching, psychology or learning and development is required.

Bring details of a current workplace challenge, role transition, difficult project or development goal. You may also bring relevant feedback, performance objectives or project lessons, provided you can discuss them without sharing confidential information.

The course is designed for managers, HR and L&D practitioners, project leaders, specialists and employees preparing for broader responsibilities. It is most useful for people who need to learn quickly from unfamiliar work rather than follow a fixed technical process.

Resilience training focuses mainly on maintaining wellbeing and effectiveness under pressure. This course focuses on the repeatable behaviours used to learn from experience, feedback, mistakes, experimentation and changing work demands.

Participants leave with an action plan linked to a live workplace challenge and methods for reflection, feedback and experimentation. The plan can be reviewed with a manager, mentor or accountability partner during the following 90 days.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. The five days progress from personal learning patterns and feedback through experimentation, peer learning, stretch assignments and an individual application plan.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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