learninglabs

Learning new ways of working for all - modular, practical and scalable

The learninglabs are a curriculum consisting of training modules that build on each other and that cover the topics of human-centered and agile ways of working. These trainings are successfully applied by our clients worldwide to impart agile methods and process knowledge to their employees and, above all, to enable a change of mindset.

Our trainings are based on the conviction that "the difference between theory and practice is greater in practice than in theory". Therefore, we design highly immersive learning experiences in which participants are not only trained theoretically, but also gain agile competence through practical experience. The modular training system allows flexibility in adapting learning content to all levels of agile maturity. In addition, the learninglabs can be easily scaled: Our team has trained more than 20,000 people. And in India alone, we look back at over 70,000 learninglabs participants in train-the-trainer courses.

All learninglabs are launchlabs certified and can take place on your premises, in one of the launchlabs innovation lofts, in another inspiring location or remotely via video conference. We would be happy to put together a tailor-made learninglabs curriculum for you from our modules.

A short overview of selected modules can be found here:

introduction
practitioner
agile leadership
facilitator
agile coach
masterclasses

Get to know Design Thinking and other agile methods!

Introductory module at a glance

In the introductory module, participants are guided through a typical agile design process within a team. To learn the core principles of human-centricity, they apply exercises in different topics, such as user centricity, working in iterations or interdisciplinary teamwork. The teams, furthermore, reflect on their experiences in relation to their own work environment. Optionally, we offer so called deep dives on selected methods that we train by providing theoretical background, best practices and having the participants apply them in practical exercises.

For whom?

Managers and executives who would like to get to know agile and human-centered work in a compact way, e.g. embedded in a larger event
Teams from all departments, e.g. R&D, HR or innovation management, who would like to learn more about the potential of agile methodologies in practice

What?

Clarification of the question why agile principles are essential in today’s world
Short presentation of the basic principles of an agile and human-centered approach with practical examples and best practices
Experience agile, human-centered work yourself by going through an entire design process and actively applying the basic principles of agility in small teams

How long?

At least 90 minutes to four hours
Deep Dives can be done over one to two days

Practitioner means a hands-on approach to learning, experiencing and implementing human-centered and innovative ways of working!

Practitioner at a glance

The Practitioner certification offers an in-depth understanding of human-centered and innovative methods, such as Design Thinking. The methods learned are applied using one of your own business challenges to illustrate an iterative design process and co-create a solution.

For whom?

Managers and executives who are interested in learning to apply agile and human-centered methods in a compact way
Teams from all kinds of departments, such as R&D, HR or innovation management, who would like to get to know agile ways of working and learn how to apply individual methods in practice

What?

Active learning of different principles and design methods within the framework of cross-functional teamwork
Reflection of one’s teamwork culture
Application of the acquired knowledge within the framework of a (supervised) practice project
Reflection of the experiences and delving deeper into the learnings after the practice project

How long?

Three days extension module
Four- to eight-week practice project with support from our facilitators
One to two days of review and reflection

Any prior knowledge that might be helpful?

Introductory Module

Agile Leadership creates the conditions and context for an agile and innovative organizational culture

Agile Leadership at a glance

An agile organizational culture requires agile and creative teams that act independently and autonomously. This has far-reaching consequences and implications on the way that these teams can and should be managed. For (prospective) agile leaders, a lot of questions arise: What kind of leadership do my teams or employees need? What exactly does agile and “servant” leadership look like? And what does this entail for me as a leader? What (else) can I “manage” in the future?

For whom?

Leadership and management teams with basic knowledge in Design Thinking and agile methodologies, who want to establish an approach towards new work culture

What?

Active reinforcement of some of the most relevant agile methods, models and frameworks for executives
Experience how cross-functional teams, appropriate work environments and agile working methods can foster an innovative culture
Application of the acquired knowledge to everyday business challenges, supported by reflection with peers
Reflection on the experiences and consolidation of key learnings after the practical phase

How long?

Two-day extension module
Four- to eight-week practical training with peer group review and consultation
One to two days of reflection and reinforcement of key learnings

Any prior knowledge that might be helpful?

Introduction module, Practitioner, Facilitator

In the facilitator module, participants learn how to prepare and carry out a workshop or an agile project and thus become professional methodical sparring partners

Facilitator at a glance

As a facilitator you can teach and guide interdisciplinary teams, plan agile projects and support an innovative working culture and (team)work environment.

For whom?

Individuals and teams looking to create a human-centered and agile company culture and learn to strategically apply individual methods in a variety of organizational contexts

What?

Clarification of the facilitator role
Guidance and enablement in understanding and applying design thinking methods
Project planning and setup of teams, support of teams within agile projects
Establishing an agile culture in the diverse contexts
Practice in scenarios including critical situations, e.g. by using role plays

How long?

Minimum two-day extension module
One day of reflection

Any prior knowledge that might be helpful?

Introduction module, Practitioner

Our multi-perspective module for experts

Agile Coach at a glance

As an Agile Coach, you are ably to analyze and classify all types of challenges, from small agile teams to large agile transformation projects, and master them by applying the appropriate interventions.

For whom?

Participants with prior knowledge in the field of agile methods and first practical experience in the implementation of agile projects

What?

Three training modules, in which we approach the topic of Agile Coaching from different perspectives (methodical, theoretical, strategic, systemic)
Module 1 deals with the individual role of an Agile Coach and explains the application areas of the different agile frameworks
Module 2 focuses on problems and challenges in an agile work environment and looks at personal relationships and tensions within it
Module 3 involves not only the participants but also their respective managers and executives in order to jointly develop optimal conditions for agile transformation

How long?

Ideally three days for each of the three training modules with practical phases of approx. 8 weeks in between

Any prior knowledge that might be helpful?

Introduction module, Practitioner, Facilitator

Especially for experienced coaches and facilitators we offer the possibility to deep dive into certain topics with our 2-day Masterclasses

At the moment we offer Masterclasses on the following topics:

Creativity

Why creativity is much more than the right brainstorming method

Within this masterclass, we will, among others, answer the following questions:

What actually is creativity? And can it be learned?
What does creativity feel like? Which emotions and senses are addressed?
What happens in our brain when we are creative? What consequences does this have on our creative work?
What can we learn from “creative people” and artists?
How might we creativity be integrated into scheduled and planned-out workshop formats or collaboration processes?
How can I as a Design Thinking or Agile Coach support individuals and teams to be more creative?

Voice, presence and appearance

On the creative workshop stage – and what now?

As an Agile Coach and facilitator, you often have to slip into different roles: One time you are the expert who explains the next steps and methods. Then, you are the workshop leader and facilitator, who navigates individual teams and sometimes large groups through an often densely packed agenda. Or you take the role of a mediator in team conflicts. And last but not least, you can be a role model and “change agent”, who wants to exemplify the work culture associated with agile work in his own department or company and who wants and has to do a lot of persuading.

A strong presence and charisma are just as important as expertise in terms of the content and methodology you are trying to convey. This master class is therefore about building a coherent appearance.

We will be looking at the following questions and aspects:

How do I prepare myself, how do I start, how do I enter a room?
How do I affect others? How do I “come across”?
How do I strengthen my vocal power?
How do I use breath and body language?
How do I move (on stage)?
What gives me security?
How do I focus and create focus in the group?
How comprehensible am I and what language do I use?
How do I establish contact with the participants and keep the connection?
What is my style? What distinguishes me as a coach and facilitator?

Facilitation

Do less and achieve more. From a well-balanced agenda to the space-giving support of teams and organizations.

According to the definition of the International Association of Facilitation (IAF), facilitation is “the art of bringing to light the creativity and wisdom of a group through dialogue, by pursuing extensive transparency and clarity, and a form of participation that sees different perspectives as a resource rather than a disturbance.

Yet, facilitation means much more than just moderating an often strictly scheduled workshop. It is within this area of tension that we want to move in this master class.

We will deal with the following questions and aspects:

With which basic attitude towards myself and the participants do I plan and design my workshops?
How can I give agile teams more freedom and design options without losing “control”?
What is the dramaturgy behind a successful workshop?
How can I, especially as a Design Thinking Coach, “do less” and at the same time “achieve more” together with the participants?

projectlabs

Vision, strategy and innovation development with agile methods

launchlabs help you to ask the right questions, broaden your perspective and quickly develop so-called prototypes or Minimum Viable Products (MVP), i.e. first testable versions of a potential solution.n doing so, we foster an equally productive and playful work culture, which inspires the team, makes work fun and in which we work together in short sprints step by step to achieve better and better solutions.

This agile approach makes it easier to set the right priorities, estimate the effort required and implement initial measures in a flexible and quick manner. The focus is always on the users. Our launchlabs facilitators guide your team as a whole as well as each individual, enabling them to learn and develop, not least through regular reviews and reflections. In addition, we make sure that the results are integrated into the structures and processes of your company towards the end of the project.

All projectlabs can take place on your premises, in one of the launchlabs innovation lofts, at another inspiring location or remotely via video conference.

visionlabs
strategylabs
innovationlabs

The launchlabs provide support in answering the question “why?”

visionlabs at a glance

Within the visionlabs, participants work collaboratively under the guidance of experienced launchlabs facilitators to develop a sustainable vision for the introduction of more user centricity and agility in your organisation or department.

The question is clarified what the focus on users means for your organisation and why this is important. In addition, a shared vision in the form of a vision statement is developed and principles of future collaboration are clarified.

The participants will experience a human-centred design thinking process, independently develop their own insights directly from real users, customers and employees using qualitative research methods. They will define their challenge and objective more precisely, generate ideas, form and test the first prototypes. All this serves to experience human-centred methods first-hand and to better understand and empathize with the people, stakeholders and partners involved.. Subsequently, a moderated vision workshop is carried out and the next steps are defined.

For whom?

Leaders, managers and executives from organisations who would like to develop a vision (sense, purpose, reason why) together with their peers, team members and employees

What?

launchlabs support your management team in clarifying what the focus on users means and why this is important
Participants are guided through a human-centered process, gathering insights, developing ideas, building prototypes and testing them
launchlabs moderate a vision workshop
Definition of next steps

How long?

From a two-day vision workshop to implementation support over the course of several months

The launchlabs provide support for longer-term strategic reorientations or selective strategy and retreat meetings

strategylabs at a glance

By applying agile approaches, we support your management team in developing strategic issues with agile approaches. This enables you to flexibly integrate the complexity of rapidly changing markets, uncertain conditions, technological trends and exogenous shocks into your strategy.

With approaches such as Design Thinking, Lean Start-Up, Blue Ocean Strategy or Business Model Innovation we help you not only to plan innovative business models or strategic positioning, but also to test them in realistic scenarios without great risk. Agile methods enable you as an organization to validate and adapt your hypotheses and concepts on the market in a faster and more flexible way, similar to a start-up.

In our strategylabs, we systematically examine and describe the status quo together with your cross-functional management team. Fields of action are explored, defined and prioritized together. From this, we develop design principles for their implementation. Finally, based on these guidelines, we develop solution approaches that we implement in a prototype and test in reality.

For whom?

Executives and leaders, who want to strategically realign themselves and their organization

What?

Systematic recording and analysis of the status quo
Collaborative development of strategic topics
Application of agile methods during the validation of hypotheses and concepts

How long?

From the one-day strategy meeting to implementation support over several months

You are facing complex development tasks for which you know neither the solution nor the solution path? We turn your team into an agile speedboat by designing and executing agile innovation sprints with you.

innovationlabs at a glance

We make you faster than the market by planning agile innovation projects with your development teams and guiding them towards implementation. With agile approaches such as Design Thinking, Lean-Start-Up, Business Model Innovation or Scrum, you pivot away from traditional structures and steer your organization like a start-up yourself: you will develop new services, products, processes and business models in a consistently user-oriented and agile manner.

By allowing yourself to fail early, you learn from them faster. In this way, you can reduce uncertainty and thus the risk of bad investments, even when faced with complex challenges. From the very beginning, we set up innovation projects with you in such a way that teams from different departments work together and make use of their diverse perspectives. In addition, we help you to gain inspiration for unusual solutions from a wide range of industries and contexts throughout the entire project duration. All in all, with our support, you can quickly design innovative solutions for complex challenges that will prove themselves in the market long-term.

For whom?

Development teams or managers who need to develop solutions for complex problems for which there is no clear solution path

What?

The launchlabs support you with the methodical know-how of agile approaches in the development of novel services, products, processes or business models
We support your team in developing visionary ideas beyond the everyday and bring them to market via prototypes – always with user needs in mind
In preparation for the project, we help you put together cross-functional teams, plan the development sprints with you, including the necessary resources, and support you in setting up a creative teamwork environment

How long?

Workshop formats lasting several days to provide impulses and show development paths
Long-term support within the framework of a project to bring solutions to market maturity

Case Study: Festo

culturelabs

Innovative teams need a playing field that fosters creativity and provides a structure that allows ideas to fly.

Within our culturelabs, we ensure that your newly acquired methodological competence and first successfully implemented innovation projects do not remain punctual and temporary "agile success stories".

By developing agile work environments, core teams, an active agile community within your company as well as an integrated communication strategy, we contribute to establishing an agile innovation culture and mindset that is sustainable and anchored company-wide.

workspacelabs
teamlabs
communicationslabs

Innovation teams need creative and inspiring work spaces while, at the same time, supporting rituals and structures make their ideas fly. Launchlabs works with you to develop effective working environments for agile teams in both the digital and analogue space.

Workspacelabs - Workspace Design - Room Certification

If you want to establish a longlasting spirit of innovation as well as entre- and intrapreneurialship in your organization, good will and methodological competence are not enough. We help you to develop a teamwork environment and corresponding structures that enables your innovation champions to fully focus on their tasks and not be hindered by bureaucratic hurdles, overturned processes or confining spaces. Small changes often have a big impact in terms of inspiration and collaboration. Be it the physical workspace, the working materials or even the digital infrastructure and possibilities for collaboration over physical distance.

We work with you to determine which digital and analogue tools best suit your organization, budget and goals. In addition, we have developed our own products and services, our modular furniture line what if we fly for teamwork and our workflow software Flowtomator, with which you can benefit from our many years of experience in setting up and operating innovation units:

Workspace Design

Room certificates

Workspace Design at a glance

launchlabs is happy to support you with everything you need to create your space for innovation:

Workspace Design: from concept ideas to floor plans, from zoning plans to room budgets, from sketches to 3D visualisations, from interior design to the operational concept of your room
Mobile furniture: mobile bar tables, shelves and stands for agile work in various setups. Design and functionality are ideally matched and based on the long experience of the Berlin-based designer pool22 and launchlabs. For this purpose we have created the joint brand what if we fly for design thinking furniture and agile teamwork environments
Rent a Lab: Experience what a well-equipped, inspiring teamwork environment can do for you, your team and your challenges. Rent a lab in one of our innovation lofts or another inspiring location near you

Room certificates at a glance

A successful teamwork environment brings people, materials and methods together in a way in which it triggers and facilitates innovation. The teamwork spaces certified by launchlabs are

optimized for agile work
designed for people
consistently sustainable.

Our comprehensive catalogue of criteria ranges from basic aspects such as space, daylight and air supply to keep the energy of the participants and teams high, even during longer sprints, to the equipment with mobile furniture for optimal agile working, all the way to aspects of sustainability, accessibility and design.

The room or its design is flexibly adapted to the goals and needs of the people and to the concrete purpose of use and not the other way around. We at launchlabs have years of experience in the planning, design and certification of such innovation spaces.

Would you like to create an environment for innovation? Develop individuals and teams into agile ambassadors.

teamlabs at a glance

Team

Our experience shows, that it is especially in the first phase of an agile transformation process, that a core team of pioneers and role models for the desired change within your company is needed.

With our teamlabs, we want to support the development of (agile) teams:

Together with you, we describe the requirements for potential members of a core team and, if desired, also support you in the selection of employees
In combination with our learninglabs, we educate employees and teams on the necessary tools, models and theory. Ideally, your agile team applies their knowledge in a first innovationlabs project to a concrete business challenge

Values

In addition to extensive methodological expertise and initial (learning) successes in the implementation of concrete innovation projects, a sustainable change in your corporate culture requires a cross-divisional and company-wide discussion of the values required. Within our valuelabs, we plan appropriate workshop formats and events together with you, in which we work with your employees, teams and managers to develop and bring to life the values that are right for your organization and that match your purpose and mission.

Structure

Together with you, we design structures and processes in which agile innovation teams and employees can develop their full potential. In order to assess and adapt your currect structure and process landscape, ideally with minimum impact interventions, our structurelabs include:

subject your existing process landscape to an agility check
Design a strategy to implement process adaptations
Design a timeline for the embedding into the regular operation
Recommend and implement (digital) tools for agile collaboration

Communication is key to any successful organization and a crucial enabler of agility

communicationlabs at a glance

Each of our actions involves some form of communication and it is impossible not to communicate. Targeted, transparent and adaptable communication is therefore an essential factor in successfully driving forward transformation processes in an organization. Even more so, when the change process affects the very values of the company.

Within the communicationlabs, we work with you to develop a human-centric, integrative and agile communication strategy. In this way, we support you in understanding the needs of your employees and stakeholder and increase their commitment, interaction and acceptance. The tools we create together range from suggestion boxes and community of practices to campaigns and live community events. All tools are measured frequently (qualitatively and quantitatively) and adapted as needed.

By applying visual, verbal and relational communication tools in an integrated way, we make the “why” transparent, share knowledge and form the basis for a change in mindset.

Community

For the agile transformation to become a company-wide movement, it requires the interest and active cooperation of as many of your employees as possible. That is why we support you with the communitylabs in planning and carrying out a wide range of activities and events such as meetups and sharing sessions to build a vibrant agile community within your organization.