Learning Agility Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Learning and Development Manager, Talent Management Manager and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-264

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in HR, learning and development, talent management, organisational development or people leadership.

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 capacity to learn quickly from unfamiliar, high-stakes experience and apply that learning to the next challenge. HR and L&D professionals need to identify it accurately, develop it through work design, and demonstrate its contribution to performance. Without a clear model, organisations often confuse learning agility with confidence, technical expertise or willingness to change, resulting in weak talent decisions and generic development plans.

This course examines the behavioural foundations of learning agility: self-awareness, mental agility, people agility, change agility and results agility. Participants use DeRue's observe-perform-reflect-experiment cycle, Kolb's experiential learning cycle, After Action Reviews, stakeholder mapping, developmental assignments and feedback methods. They learn to diagnose learning-agility demands in roles, create meaningful stretch experiences, coach reflective practice, and measure behaviour change without relying on subjective impressions alone.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with cases, group analysis, simulations, peer feedback and structured application planning. Participants work with situations familiar to HR and L&D teams, including leadership transitions, cross-functional projects, digital change programmes and succession pipelines. Each participant leaves with a learning-agility development plan, a developmental assignment canvas, behavioural indicators and a 90-day implementation schedule. The course is delivered over five instructor-led days, either in a classroom in 50+ cities or live online, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course is particularly suited to professionals responsible for talent, leadership development, performance, succession, organisational development and manager capability. It also benefits HR business partners who need to turn broad requests for adaptable talent into observable behaviours, credible development actions and measurable results.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose learning-agility requirements using behavioural indicators, role demands and multi-source evidence
  • Apply DeRue's observe-perform-reflect-experiment cycle to challenging work experiences
  • Use reflective practice, feedback-seeking and After Action Reviews to convert experience into learning
  • Design stretch assignments using challenge, support, risk and success measures
  • Coach managers to create developmental conversations, feedback routines and accountable experimentation
  • Assess learning-agility behaviours using behavioural anchors, calibration and evidence-based judgment
  • Build learning-agility interventions using 70-20-10, peer learning and workplace practice
  • Create a 90-day learning-agility implementation plan with measures, milestones and review points

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A structured method for recognising learning-agility behaviours beyond confidence and experience
  • Practical language for discussing adaptability, reflection and developmental readiness with managers
  • A reusable process for converting challenging work into measurable learning
  • Stronger capability to design stretch assignments without creating unmanaged risk
  • A personal 90-day plan for applying learning-agility methods in a current role

For your organisation

  • More consistent identification of employees suited to ambiguous and changing roles
  • Stronger succession decisions supported by behavioural evidence rather than reputation alone
  • Development plans that use real work challenges rather than course attendance alone
  • Managers better equipped to give feedback, assign stretch work and review learning
  • Clearer measures linking development activity with observable behaviour change

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish learning agility from related concepts and explain its value in talent and development decisions.

  • Learning agility defined as rapid learning from unfamiliar, consequential experience
  • Distinguishing learning agility, learning ability, adaptability and growth mindset
  • DeRue's observe, perform, reflect and experiment cycle for challenging assignments
  • Experience-based learning versus knowledge acquisition and technical competence
  • Individual, team and organisational conditions that accelerate learning transfer
  • Ethical boundaries when stretching employees through developmental assignments

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

  • Self-awareness as the foundation of accurate learning-agility judgments
  • Johari Window used to compare self-perception with stakeholder feedback
  • Identifying fixed routines, defensive reactions and learning triggers
  • Feedback-seeking plans using feedforward questions and multiple raters
  • Reflective journals that capture assumptions, emotions, decisions and outcomes
  • Bias checks for overconfidence, attribution error and impression management

Participants can frame unfamiliar problems, test assumptions and make sense of complex evidence.

  • Cynefin domains used to classify simple, complicated, complex and chaotic work
  • Separating signals from noise through hypothesis-driven environmental scanning
  • Problem reframing with laddering questions, five whys and assumption reversal
  • Competing hypotheses tested against disconfirming evidence and stakeholder perspectives
  • Systems maps tracing feedback loops, constraints, delays and unintended consequences
  • Decision logs linking assumptions, evidence, choices and subsequent results

Participants can turn work experience into retained learning through structured reflection and practice.

  • Kolb's experiential learning cycle applied to challenging work episodes
  • After Action Reviews structured around intent, events, learning and adjustment
  • Double-loop learning distinguishes action correction from assumption revision
  • Deliberate practice designed with stretch goals, feedback and repetition
  • Learning goals written separately from performance goals and output targets
  • Retrieval practice and spaced repetition for retaining new procedural knowledge

Participants can build learning relationships that improve perspective-taking, feedback and collaboration.

  • People agility demonstrated through curiosity, empathy and adaptive communication
  • Stakeholder maps identify interests, influence, resistance and information needs
  • Active listening techniques: paraphrasing, probing, summarising and checking meaning
  • Perspective-taking distinguishes stated positions from underlying needs and constraints
  • Psychological safety conditions for speaking up, questions and constructive dissent
  • Cross-functional learning conversations convert expertise differences into better decisions

Participants can support employees to learn, adapt and test responses during organisational change.

  • Change agility assessed through response patterns under uncertainty and disruption
  • ADKAR model distinguishes awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement
  • Immunity-to-change maps expose competing commitments and hidden assumptions
  • Scenario planning develops contingent responses to plausible operational shifts
  • Safe-to-fail experiments define probes, boundaries, measures and review points
  • Communication cadence matches message, audience, channel and decision timing

Participants can connect learning agility with accountable decisions, pilots and measurable business outcomes.

  • Results agility balances pace, quality, risk and stakeholder value
  • OKRs translate learning priorities into measurable outcomes and key results
  • RAPID decision roles clarify recommend, agree, perform, input and decide
  • Minimum viable pilots test assumptions before broader resource commitments
  • Decision quality reviewed separately from favourable or unfavourable outcomes
  • Escalation criteria specify authority limits, risk thresholds and response times

Participants can design work-based development experiences matched to readiness and organisational priorities.

  • 70-20-10 used to structure experience, relationships and formal learning
  • Developmental assignment canvas defines challenge, support, risk and measures
  • Stretch assignments matched to readiness, motivation and business priorities
  • Job rotations planned with entry goals, sponsors and handover controls
  • Coaching questions promote reflection without removing employee accountability
  • Mentoring, peer learning and action learning matched to development needs

Participants can assess learning-agility behaviours fairly and track progress using credible evidence.

  • Multi-source evidence combines performance data, feedback, observation and reflection
  • Learning-agility indicators translated into observable behavioural anchors
  • Behaviourally anchored rating scales reduce ambiguity in manager assessments
  • Calibration sessions test rating consistency across managers and functions
  • Pre- and post-measures distinguish activity completion from behaviour change
  • Privacy, consent and fairness requirements for employee development data

Participants can implement a practical learning-agility plan within talent, leadership or development processes.

  • Learning-agility action plan prioritises one role-relevant development challenge
  • Personal experiments specify hypotheses, actions, measures and review dates
  • Manager contracting secures challenge, feedback, resources and accountability
  • Thirty-, sixty- and ninety-day milestones sequence practice and reflection
  • Learning transfer barriers anticipated through pre-mortem analysis and mitigations
  • Peer accountability arrangements sustain reflection, feedback requests and course correction

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

What you take back to work

  1. Learning-agility behavioural indicator matrix
  2. Reflective practice and After Action Review template
  3. Developmental assignment canvas
  4. Manager feedback-seeking conversation guide
  5. Learning-agility assessment and calibration checklist
  6. Ninety-day learning-agility implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Learning and Development Manager — designs development pathways and leadership programmes
  • Talent Management Manager — identifies adaptable talent for succession and critical roles
  • HR Business Partner — translates business challenges into targeted people development
  • Organisational Development Specialist — builds conditions for learning, feedback and change
  • Leadership Development Practitioner — strengthens experiential development for current and future leaders
  • People Manager — creates stretch assignments and feedback routines for team members

Skills and tools covered

Learning agility diagnosisReflective practice designDevelopmental assignment designFeedback-seeking coachingBehavioural assessmentLearning transfer planning

Tools and standards

DeRue Learning Agility Model, Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle, Cynefin Framework, ADKAR Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to introduce learning-agility models and then applies them through realistic HR and L&D cases. Participants analyse leadership transitions, talent reviews, change initiatives and developmental assignment decisions in groups. Simulations develop feedback-seeking, reflective questioning and manager coaching skills. Structured templates are used to assess behaviours, design work-based development and plan measurement. Individual application planning connects the methods to a live workforce, talent or leadership-development priority.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in HR, learning and development, talent management, organisational development or people leadership. They should be familiar with basic performance management, feedback conversations and workplace learning activities. Experience designing or delivering training is useful but not essential. No psychology qualification, coaching credential, assessment certification or statistical background is required. Participants do not need prior knowledge of learning-agility models; the course introduces the relevant frameworks before applying them to talent, development and workplace learning decisions.

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 experience in an HR, L&D, talent, organisational development or people-management role. Prior knowledge of learning-agility theory, psychometrics or coaching models is not required.

Bring a current talent, leadership-development or workforce challenge that would benefit from stronger learning agility. A laptop is useful for working with the templates, although course materials are provided.

The course is designed primarily for L&D, talent management, HR business partnering and organisational development professionals. It is also valuable for managers responsible for developing staff through demanding assignments and change.

Leadership development often focuses on leading others, while change management focuses on planning and implementing change. This course focuses on how people learn from unfamiliar experience, feedback, uncertainty and failure, and how HR and L&D can develop those behaviours systematically.

Participants can apply the methods to succession reviews, leadership programmes, performance conversations, job rotations and change initiatives. The final implementation plan identifies a role-relevant challenge, measures, manager support and review dates.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group work, simulations, peer feedback and application planning across the ten modules.

Questions about this course?

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