A 2-Day Hands on TMS Workshop

Course Description:

Department of the Air Force civilian leaders operate in an environment where change is constant, resources are constrained, and unexpected events can rapidly disrupt established plans. Some situations emerge suddenly as crises. Others develop as sustained challenges involving competing priorities, workforce pressure, shifting requirements, or persistent uncertainty. Still others involve planned organizational changes that must be understood, communicated, implemented, and sustained. In each case, leaders must preserve mission focus while adapting how the organization operates.

Agile Leadership: Leading Through Crisis, Challenge, and Change is a highly interactive, two-day workshop that prepares strategic-level civilian leaders to guide Air Force organizations through disruption, uncertainty, and transition. The workshop expands beyond traditional crisis management or planned change management by developing the leader’s ability to recognize changing conditions, make timely decisions, mobilize people, adjust priorities, communicate with clarity, and sustain mission performance as circumstances evolve.

Agile leadership does not mean reacting quickly to every new issue or continuously changing direction. It means accurately assessing the operating environment, distinguishing significant developments from temporary noise, and adapting at the speed required by the mission. Agile leaders know what must remain stable, what must change, and how to help people move forward without losing confidence, cohesion, or connection to mission purpose.

Participants will examine three distinct but interconnected leadership conditions:

  • Crisis: A sudden, high-consequence event requiring immediate leadership attention, rapid coordination, and decisive action.
  • Challenge: A demanding or prolonged condition involving limited resources, competing requirements, organizational stress, or uncertainty.
  • Change: A planned or emerging shift in policy, structure, technology, workforce, priorities, or mission execution that requires organizational transition and sustained adoption.

The workshop emphasizes that leaders must approach each condition differently. A crisis may require immediate stabilization and centralized coordination. A sustained challenge may require perseverance, resource tradeoffs, and frequent reassessment. Organizational change may require broader participation, deliberate communication, stakeholder engagement, and reinforcement over time.

Participants will learn to recognize which leadership condition they are facing, determine the appropriate decision tempo, and adjust their leadership approach accordingly.

Special emphasis is placed on the strategic civilian leader’s responsibility to create clarity when information is incomplete or conditions are changing. Participants will practice identifying immediate mission priorities, establishing decision and escalation boundaries, communicating known and unknown information, and organizing a leadership rhythm that supports shared awareness without creating unnecessary meetings or reporting requirements.

The course also addresses the human side of agility. Leaders must understand how uncertainty, workload, fear, fatigue, resistance, and loss of control affect employee behavior and team performance. Participants will examine how to remain composed, communicate difficult information, maintain trust, and help teams continue performing during extended periods of pressure.

Through Air Force-relevant case studies, facilitated discussions, decision exercises, stakeholder analysis, and an evolving leadership simulation, participants will respond to changing conditions involving mission disruption, competing senior-leader priorities, workforce constraints, technology failures, organizational resistance, and incomplete information.

Participants will leave with practical tools for assessing changing conditions, setting priorities, making decisions, communicating uncertainty, mobilizing stakeholders, adapting implementation plans, and strengthening organizational capacity for future challenges.

Learning Objectives & Topics Covered:

  • Explain agile leadership within the context of Department of the Air Force civilian leadership and mission execution

  • Distinguish among a crisis, a sustained leadership challenge, and an organizational change

  • Determine how the leadership approach, decision tempo, communication requirements, and degree of control should change based on the situation

  • Recognize early warning indicators, weak signals, operational disruptions, and emerging conditions that may require leadership intervention

  • Assess the mission significance, urgency, scope, and potential consequences of a changing situation

  • Identify what must be stabilized immediately, what may be temporarily deferred, and what should continue without interruption

  • Establish clear mission priorities when multiple requirements compete for limited attention and resources

  • Determine which organizational values, standards, capabilities, and mission requirements must remain stable during change

  • Identify assumptions that may no longer be valid as conditions evolve

  • Create shared awareness among senior leaders, employees, mission partners, customers, and other stakeholders

  • Make timely decisions when information is incomplete, inconsistent, or rapidly changing

  • Balance speed, deliberation, risk, stakeholder input, and mission urgency

  • Determine when decisions should be centralized and when authority should be delegated

  • Establish clear decision rights, reporting expectations, and escalation thresholds

  • Evaluate immediate, secondary, and long-term effects before committing the organization to a course of action

  • Develop and compare alternative courses of action when an initial plan is no longer viable

  • Maintain strategic direction while adapting tactics, timelines, resources, and implementation methods

  • Communicate difficult information, changing priorities, risk, and uncertainty clearly and credibly

  • Explain what is known, what remains unknown, what is being done, and when additional information will be available

  • Tailor communication to senior leaders, employees, mission partners, customers, and affected stakeholders

  • Prevent information gaps, rumors, conflicting messages, and unnecessary uncertainty from undermining mission confidence

  • Establish an effective leadership and communication rhythm during disruption or transition

  • Maintain visible composure and sound judgment when employees and stakeholders are experiencing pressure

  • Recognize the effects of stress, fatigue, uncertainty, resistance, and change saturation on workforce performance

  • Support employee resilience without minimizing legitimate workload, risk, or organizational concerns

  • Build and use cross-functional leadership networks before and during complex event

  • Coordinate across military, civilian, contractor, installation, command, and career field boundaries

  • Identify stakeholder needs, likely resistance, competing interests, and sources of support

  • Build understanding and commitment for necessary organizational changes

  • Address resistance without assuming that all opposition is unreasonable or unproductive

  • Distinguish resistance based on misunderstanding, loss, risk, workload, competing priorities, or legitimate technical concerns

  • Modify implementation approaches based on feedback and changing conditions

  • Maintain accountability while encouraging transparency, adaptability, and early reporting of concerns

  • Evaluate whether leadership actions are stabilizing the situation and producing the intended mission results

  • Conduct structured after-action reviews that identify lessons, vulnerabilities, and required improvements

  • Convert lessons from crisis, challenge, and change into stronger organizational capabilities and future readiness

  • Develop a practical Agile Leadership Action Plan for the participant’s organization, program, Career Field, or functional community

Flexibility

Participants learn to adjust their leadership approach, priorities, communication, decision processes, and implementation methods as conditions change. They practice responding proactively to ambiguity, identifying alternative paths, and adapting before circumstances force a reactive response.

Resilience

Participants examine how leaders maintain personal effectiveness and support organizational performance during extended stress, disruption, and uncertainty. They develop strategies for helping teams recover, sustain effort, and adapt after difficult or repeated events.

Self-Control

Participants practice remaining visibly composed during high-pressure situations, controlling unproductive reactions, and responding constructively to conflict, criticism, resistance, and unwelcome developments. They examine how leader behavior affects confidence and stability across the organization.

Decision Making

Participants assess incomplete information, weigh risks and benefits, identify known and unknown variables, and make timely decisions under pressure. They learn to adjust decision tempo based on mission urgency and determine when further analysis will improve the decision versus delay necessary action.

Communication

Participants develop clear, concise, and audience-appropriate messages during periods of uncertainty and transition. They practice communicating risk, priorities, decisions, difficult information, and changing conditions while maintaining trust and shared understanding.

Leadership

Participants practice inspiring and directing people through disruption, sustained challenge, and organizational transition. They establish mission focus, create clarity, align stakeholders, support team performance, and adjust their leadership approach to the needs of the situation.

Strategic Thinking

Participants examine the broader organizational and mission implications of leadership decisions. They assess secondary effects, consider future conditions, identify long-term risks, and ensure that immediate responses do not unintentionally weaken future mission capability.

Change Management

Participants learn to prepare people for change, explain the purpose and urgency of new direction, involve stakeholders, address resistance, implement revised approaches, and monitor whether the change produces the intended organizational results.

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Additional Information

  • CPE Credits: 16.0

  • CEU Credits: 1.6

  • Suggested Program Prerequisites:

  • Advanced Preparation:

  • NASBA Program Level:

  • NASBA Field of Study:

  • Delivery Method: Group Live – Live Virtual Classroom