Certified AGILE LEADER® 1 (CAL 1)

live online training course
Rating 5/5: "Sam was able to show a real-life demonstration of authentic leadership over the two-day course. Honestly, it's quite inspirational and motivating and how he manages to do this remotely, which is the truly remarkable part."
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Overview

  • Certified Agile Leader® 1 (CAL 1) is a Scrum Alliance certification for anyone who leads, or wants to lead, people through change. It's about the shift from command and control to empowering, trusting and enabling teams, and the self-awareness it takes to make that shift.

  • Over two highly interactive days you'll start with yourself, then widen the lens to your team and your organisation. You'll use proven leadership models, a real case study from Sam's own leadership and AI tools to support your growth, building a personal leadership action plan as you go.

  • Format: 2 days, live online via Zoom, with group work in Miro. No exam: your certification follows the end-of-course feedback survey.
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What will you learn?

🧭 The case for agile leadership Why leadership needs to change, what agile and business agility really mean, and how AI is reshaping the leader's role.
🪜 Leadership frameworks Connect mindset, values and behaviour, and use Joiner's Leadership Agility levels (Expert, Achiever, Catalyst) to see how you can grow.
🚢 Agile leadership in action Assess your teams' agile maturity, let go of control with Intent-Based Leadership, and lift motivation through autonomy, competence and relatedness.
🪞 How you show up as a leader Self-awareness, language, managing emotions, taking responsibility, psychological safety and vulnerability, plus using AI to support your growth.
🏆 High-performing teams What makes great teams, giving and receiving feedback, the Five Dysfunctions, and a real case study from Sam's award-winning team.
🏢 Culture, structure and change Culture that enables agility, organising around value, rethinking governance, and leading change with Switch, the transition model and ADKAR.

How the two days run

Day 1 is about you as a leader: why leadership needs to change, frameworks for growing as an agile leader, agile leadership in action, and how you show up. Day 2 widens the lens to your team and organisation: high-performing teams, culture, structure and governance, and leading change. You'll add to your leadership action plan after every session.
1. The case for agile leadership Define agile, business agility and agile leadership, explore how AI is changing what leaders do, and meet Suzy, a traditional leader who needs to adapt.
2. Leadership frameworks Explore how mindset drives behaviour, link your values to how you act, and place yourself on Joiner's Leadership Agility levels.
3. Agile leadership in action and self-awareness Assess team maturity with a free AI health check and practise Intent-Based Leadership. Then look inward: emotions, responsibility, psychological safety and the Immunity to Change model.
Agile leadership starts with you. This course gives you the mindset, the models and a plan to lead the change.
4. High-performing teams Find the X factor of great teams, practise giving and receiving feedback, explore the Five Dysfunctions, and hear how Sam led an award-winning team.
5. Culture, structure and governance Explore culture through Reinventing Organisations, Patagonia and Tesla, then organisational design, team topologies, Minimum Viable Compliance and the impact of AI.
6. Leading change Use Switch, the three states of transition, the change curve and ADKAR, compare top-down and bottom-up transformations, and play Up Agile Snakes, Down Agile Ladders. What you'll leave with
  • The Certified Agile Leader® 1 (CAL 1) certification from Scrum Alliance (no exam)
  • A personal leadership action plan, built session by session
  • Practical models including Leadership Agility, Intent-Based Leadership and ADKAR
  • A free AI-powered team health check
  • Real case studies from Sam's own leadership experience
  • Course slides, templates and further reading
  • Ongoing support through our WhatsApp learning community

What participants say

  • Rating 5/5: "Sam was able to show a real-life demonstration of authentic leadership over the two-day course. Honestly, it's quite inspirational and motivating and how he manages to do this remotely, which is the truly remarkable part."

  • Rating 5/5: "Great course and highly engaged with the way Sam ran the course and the tools used along with the format and setup. Love the number of breaks he factored into the course which allowed us to continue have the energy. Range of topics discussed was fantastic."

  • Rating 5/5: "It touched on a number of topics / frameworks and gave a good basic overview of what agile leadership can mean. A lot of material was made available for future study and to potentially implement in real life."

  • Rating 5/5: "Very informative, engaging and fun. Learned a lot, and Sam is very good with imparting knowledge verbally and visually (with his drawings)."

  • Rating 5/5: "Great perspectives, interactive, shared knowledge, new learnings, new techniques, Sam is a great facilitator."

  • Rating 5/5: "Very interactive. Barely any PowerPoint. I felt engaged the whole time. Sam’s energy is brilliant."

  • Rating 5/5: "Sam is such a great teacher, and always good to hear other peoples' experiences and learn from them too"

  • Rating 5/5: "The engaging content, mural as a tool and way to work in groups, the professional agenda and technical smoothness"

  • Rating 5/5: "Very well connected course. Good use of visuals and gamification."
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Looking for CAL-E/T/O?

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The Scrum Alliance have recently refactored the leadership learning program. CAL Essentials, Teams, and Organisations have been restructured into the updated and enhanced CAL 1 and 2. Please visit the CAL FAQs to find out how this change may impact you if you hold any of the existing Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Leader certificates or are currently enrolled in one of the courses.
Please contact Scrum Alliance Support if you have any questions.

Who should attend Certified Agile Leadership ?

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CAL 1 is designed for:
Scrum mastersLeadersManagersSenior directorsC-suite executivesCoaches and consultantsAnyone who leads or wants to lead people This course is right for professionals in any industry who want to expand their leadership skills, develop and lead teams effectively, and manage organisational change. It's a good match for anyone leading or participating in an agile transformation, or anyone who wants to grow into a leadership role with tools tailored to today's business challenges.

Questions

  • Do I need agile experience?
  • No. CAL 1 suits leaders at every level, from new team leads to executives, whether or not your organisation already works in an agile way.

  • How do I get certified?
  • There's no exam. Complete a short feedback survey at the end of day 2 and Scrum Alliance will issue your CAL 1 certification.

  • How can I prepare?
  • Complete the short pre-work before day 1 and bring a real leadership challenge you're facing. You'll use it throughout the course.

  • What do I need on the day?
  • A computer with Zoom, a reliable internet connection and a webcam. We'll use Miro for group work.

  • Can you run this for our leadership team?
  • Yes — we can run CAL 1 in-house for your organisation.

  • Where next? Continue with Certified Agile Leader® 2 (CAL 2), or add AI to your leadership toolkit with our AI for Leaders course.
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More Resources
Review the Scrum Alliance learning objectives for CAL-1
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