CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders

CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders Logo

The Grow-Lean Certified Agile Leadership Essentials (CAL-E) / Organization (CAL-O) combines two classes into one comprehensive session.

  • You start with the CAL-E, and understand the core principles and values underlying agile methods, as well as your role in supporting and promoting them.
  • In the second half, the CAL-O, you learn how to be effective in supporting agile programs and portfolios and craft a template for organizational transformation and change management with minimum risk and maximum impact.

Your trainer Arlen Bankston has a lengthy career starting prior to the Agile Manifesto. He was a founding executive in one of the earliest agile consultancies, starting with agile in the late 1990's. He has filled multiple roles over his training and coaching career, and worked with leaders at all types of organizations.

As as result you’ll enjoy a consistently fresh and open-minded approach to agility in your CAL-EO that leans on real experience and anecdotes. Arlen uses tools like Mural and Mentimeter in completely unique ways that many students have commented is interesting in its own respect and keeps them fully engaged from beginning to end. Arlen goes to great lengths to help students share with one another, a benefit unique to a class like this with leadership talent.

Find out more about the CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders training.
Contact Grow-Lean

Testimonials

Hear from our students

Key Details

Understanding the CAL-E, CAL-O and the CAL-EO

The Scrum Alliance’s Certified Agile Leadership program consists of three initial one-day workshops (CAL-E, CAL-T and CAL-O) followed by a validated experience certification (CAL-II). The workshops can be taken separately or in various combinations. This is a combined session, the CAL-E+O, that includes the CAL-E + CAL-O.

Grow-Lean’s CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders (CAL-E+O) program is perfect for leaders looking to launch or enhance agility at both the team and organizational level. It is taught by an experienced executive who has worked with companies across the private and public sectors since the genesis of the agile movement. No question will remain unanswered or given vague treatment in this class; with 20 years of real-world transformation experience we will discuss and address your real-world problems.

Certified Agile Leadership Essentials (CAL-E) teaches how agile leaders ought to think, focus, and behave. It covers why agile methods are necessary in today’s complex and ever-changing environment, what some of the leading methods are, how to drive change in an iterative and incremental fashion, and the leader’s role in driving agility throughout an organization.

Certified Agile Leadership Essentials (CAL-E) covers why agile methods are necessary in today’s complex and ever-changing environment, what some of the leading methods are, how to drive change in an iterative and incremental fashion, and the leader’s role in driving agility throughout an organization. It also dives into many common anti-patterns and challenges faced in the real-world, along with proven ways to address them.

Arlen Bankston

CST | CSP-SM | CSP-PO | CAL | A-CSM | CSM | A-CSPO | CSPO | LSS MB | SAFe SPC5

Arlen Bankston has been a thought leader in the agile community for 24 years. He led two consultancies for over 20 years, funding and building products, leading UX/UI work within agile teams and coaching large-scale organizational transformations across dozens of companies. This means that you’ll get practical, situationally specific advice instead of theoretical hand waving. Arlen’s extensive instructional and game design background results in a uniquely entertaining and practical workshop experience. Arlen goes to great lengths to help students share with one another, a benefit unique to these most advanced classes.

Get personalized savings including group, out of pocket (self-pay), hardship, student and military vet.
Plus, you can pay in up to twelve installments with no interest or fees as long as you pay on time.

Session Schedule

CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders (CAL-EO)

CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Live Online
Trainer: Arlen Bankston
Thu
6
Apr
Fri
7
Apr
USD 1,595
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,195
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Online
valid till 31 Mar
Arlen Bankston
$100 a month or less
9:00 AM (EDT)
5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,595 USD 1,195
valid till 31 Mar
Details
GET DISCOUNTS
Register Details
CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders
Two 8-hour sessions - Live Online
Trainer: Arlen Bankston
Mon
17
Apr
Tue
18
Apr
USD 1,595
11:00 AM - 7:00 PM (EDT)
USD 1,195
Two 8-hour sessions - Online
valid till 31 Mar
Arlen Bankston
$100 a month or less
11:00 AM (EDT)
7:00 PM (EDT)
USD 1,595 USD 1,195
valid till 31 Mar
Details
GET DISCOUNTS
Register Details
CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Live Online
Trainer: Arlen Bankston
Mon
8
May
Tue
9
May
USD 1,595
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,195
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Online
valid till 31 Mar
Arlen Bankston
$100 a month or less
9:00 AM (EDT)
5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,595 USD 1,195
valid till 31 Mar
Details
GET DISCOUNTS
Register Details
CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Live Online
Trainer: Arlen Bankston
Thu
22
Jun
Fri
23
Jun
USD 1,595
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,195
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Online
valid till 15 Apr
Arlen Bankston
$100 a month or less
9:00 AM (EDT)
5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,595 USD 1,195
valid till 15 Apr
Details
GET DISCOUNTS
Register Details
CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Live Online
Trainer: Arlen Bankston
Mon
19
Feb
Tue
20
Feb
USD 1,595
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,195
Two 8.5-hour sessions - Online
valid till 15 Apr
Arlen Bankston
$100 a month or less
9:00 AM (EDT)
5:30 PM (EDT)
USD 1,595 USD 1,195
valid till 15 Apr
Details
GET DISCOUNTS
Register Details

CAL-E Learning Objectives

Understand core principles and values underlying agile methods, as well as your role in supporting and promoting them, so you can think and act different.

The Growth of Agile

Markets are increasingly volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous. Agile methods help respond to VUCA as they create short feedback loops to maximize learning, limit risk and increase return on investment.

Why Agile Leadership

Agile methods were created to deal with the need for adaptation without sacrificing quality in software development, but delivering great products and services requires end-to-end flow that extends beyond just technology silos and into other groups like marketing, sales and operations. Agile leaders help to drive better collaboration and coordination at an organizational level, which can dramatically improve product value and quality, delivery speed and employee engagement.

What Agile Leadership Entails

Agile leadership requires different approaches to planning, tracking, and managing work. Creating effective empirical feedback loops and a growth mindset are important to driving agility at scale.

Becoming an Agile Leader

The best leaders blend strong self-awareness, empathy for their employees and a nuanced understanding of the business and customer environment. This allows them to apply situational leadership where the right style depends on the context. They drive lasting change by helping teams to become properly self-organizing.

CAL-O Learning Objectives

Be effective in supporting agile programs and portfolios by crafting a template for organizational transformation and by applying organization change management to reduce risk and increase the potential positive impact.

How Leaders Enable Agility

Creating an agile culture is an iterative and incremental process like that seen in agile methods themselves. Leaders play a fundamental role in modeling agile behaviors and creating a system in which experimentation and learning can be facilitated without undue risk to the business.

Agile Organizational Design Strategies

Basic agile teams are cross-functional, encapsulating dependencies to support strong ownership. speed, quality, and adaptability. Agile organizations effectively connect dependent business units in a way that optimizes the flow of value from planning through delivery and into operations.

Driving Agility as a Leader

Empirical approaches such as Scrum rely on rapidly delivering capabilities in a way that allows for quick learning and adaptation. Leaders play a critical part in enabling this through focused portfolio management, modular planning, and adaptive governance.

What You Get

You get more than great learning, you get a free retake, alumni benefits, two year Scrum Alliance membership and more.

Live On-Line Training
Be careful of other trainings that are largely off-line or which have significant amounts of canned material. Ours is live!
No Surprises
It may sound odd, but no surprises is a good thing. No extra fees or hoops to go through to get certified.
Certification Fees
Your certification fees are covered, there are no additional charges.
Two Year Scrum Alliance Membership
You have a two year membership to the Scrum Alliance, the world's largest, agile only, not for profit, certifying body.
Two Year Renewal
All of your other Scrum Alliance Certifications are renewed for two years. No need to pay additional fees to the Scrum Alliance and no need to collect SEUs
16 Project Management Institute PDUs
You get 16 Project Management Institute (PMI) Professional Development Units (PDUs) to help meet your PMI continuing education requirements.
One Free Class Retake (within 120 days)
Want to learn more, take the class a second virtual class within a 120 days of your session end.
Alumni Discount
Take one training of $500 or more and get 5% off, two get 10% off, three get 15%, all the way up to 25% off.
Want to bring a training to your team or organization?
Contact us to discuss options for private workshops.

Training Discounts

A variety of discounts to fit your situation.

Are you a student, a veteran, unemployed, an alumni, paying out of pocket or registering a group? Claim your Grow-Lean discount now!

Please use the on-line interface for requesting a discount as described in the "Request Discount" tab. You can combine certain discounts.

  • Early Bird combines with all other discounts.
  • Alumni combines with all discounts other than group.
  • Hardship combines with early bird and/or alumni.
  • Out of Pocket combines with early bird and/or alumni
  • Student combines with early bird and/or alumni
  • Military / Vet combines with early bird and/or alumni

In addition to discounts you can pay in installments by choosing Splitit at checkout.

After entering your request you may email us at Grow-Lean-Training@Grow-Lean.Com or call us +1.609.975.9294 so that we can assist you with your request.

If you have a Visa or Mastercard credit card you can pay in up to 12 monthly installments. There are no fees or interest! Your available credit must be enough to cover the full cost and there is a hold on your credit card for the amount that you have not paid.

For example, if your final fee is $1,000 and you chose 10 installments:

  • You would pay $100 today and have a $900 hold placed on your credit card.
  • The following month your credit card would be charged another $100 and the hold would be reduced to $800.
  • Each month you pay $100 and each month the hold is reduced by $100.

If you are not familiar with the term "hold" this is similar to what hotels do when you check in, to cover extra expenses if you, for instance, use the mini bar or other hotel services.

The benefit to you is that you do not pay any interest or fees.

Find Session

Find the session you want on the class list, then click "Discounts" link. Early-bird discounts do not need to be requested.

Choose Discounts

You will be on the discounts tab for the class.

Select Discount

Choose the appropriate discount then click the link for it. Not all discounts are available for all sessions.

Enter & Submit

Provide the requested information then click "Submit".

Early Bird

Early Bird Discount
Able to register in advance?

Out of Pocket

Out of Pocket Discount
Have to pay from your own wallet and won't be reimbursed by any third party?

Group

Group Discount
Bringing friends or colleagues to the same session?

Alumni

Alumni Discount
Get 5% off for each public session, over $500, you took with us, up to 25%.

Hardship

Hardship Discount
Suffering an economic hardship and able to provide an unemployment notice or separation agreement?

Student

Student Discount
Are you a full-time college student, with a .edu email address, looking to make yourself more marketable?

Military / Veteran

Military / Veteran Discount
Are you active duty military or a veteran?

Have a Visa or Mastercard Credit Card?
Pay in up to 12 installments by choosing Splitit at checkout.
You pay zero interest!

Pre-Class Reading and Videos

Maximize your learning with preparation

Pre-reading for the your Scrum Alliance CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders training.
If you have time prior to the session, you can prepare by reviewing the free reading material and videos.
  • Start with a short read, the Agile Manifesto and the principles behind it.
  • Read the Scrum Guide. It is 13 light pages.
  • Have some more time, watch the videos on Scrum.
  • Even more time, check the CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders specific material.

Why choose our training?

Live Online Workshop with an Agile Expert.

If you want to take a live online CAL-EO Workshop you have options. One thing you can't get with the others is Arlen Bankston who:

  • Has been actively applying agile since the late 1990's.
  • Has been an agile leader much of his career.
  • Was Scrum Alliance member 41.
  • Who delivers the most engaging training experience.

By taking this session, you will:

  • Experience a blend of exercises, real-world case studies, engaging games, short videos and more.
  • Oscillate between theory and application to understand the gap between what is possible and what is most often done in business environments.
  • Leave ready to take your organization to the next level through pragmatic tips and stories from the instructor’s decades of agile experience, as well as learning from often equally experienced fellow students.

By taking this session you get:

  1. Deep discussion and learning.
  2. A 100% live collaborative session.
  3. Meaningful answers to questions.
  4. Case studies and real-life examples.

Plus, you will enjoy the session! We provide edutainment so that you have energy that drives retention.

Why Choose Grow-Lean?

Longest tenured trainers, smaller classes and higher quality.

  • Small group of elite, experienced, practical agile trainers.
  • The highest quality for a fair price.
  • Caring customer support before and after training.
  • Interactive class experience.
  • Everything is included. No hidden fees!
  • Trainers are actual practitioners. Don't trust talking heads!
  • Unique training material, templates and approaches.
  • Small class size so you get personal attention.

Earning Your Certification

Become a CAL Essentials for Organization Leader with CAL-E and CAL-O Certification.

CAL Essentials for Organization Leaders Logo

This workshop will confer the CAL-E and CAL-O certifications, as well as make you eligible to apply for the CAL II validated experience certification. You will leave with the basic skills necessary to start or expand agile delivery at your organization.

  • No additional charges or fees to become certified.
  • No exam required at present.
  • Must attend a minimum of fourteen hours class time to become certified.
  • Two years Scrum Alliance Membership included.

Grow with Us

We offer advanced training options for leaders

In addition to the CAL-E,CAL-O (Organization) and CAL-T (Team).

Grow-Lean is an approved Scrum Alliance Path to Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) Provider offering a range of classes that can grow your career, in the Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner, and Certified Agile Leader Pathways.

Grow-Lean is an approved Scrum Alliance Registered Education Provider (REP), meaning that we can list and deliver continuing education classes that earn you Scrum Education Units® (SEUs).