2026 Agile Lunch and Learn
Professional development for busy nonprofit teams. Master capacity planning, reduce burnout, and build a culture of feedback in just 60 minutes.
Professional Development That Fits Your Mission-Driven Schedule
You don’t need a full-day retreat to transform how your team works. Our 2026 Lunch & Learn series provides bite-sized, actionable Agile strategies designed specifically for the nonprofit sector.
Affordable: Individual sessions are just $49.95.
Efficient: 60 minutes of high-impact learning (12:00 PM ET).
Practical: No tech jargon—just tools to help your team create more impact at a sustainable pace.
The 2026 Lunch and Learn Series is Proudly Sponsored by:
Individual Session ($49.95)
Perfect for solving a specific team challenge.
Access to live Q&A.
Session recording included.
Looking to train your whole department? Contact us for Group Registration Rates for teams of 3 or more.
Trying New "Plays" as a Team
The phrase "that is how we have always done it" or " that is how we did it last year" is a huge risk in any team setting, but especially risky in any nonprofit organization's team, where resources are always too tight to spend time, effort, and talent on something that is not going to help deliver the most impactful result to the community at the most impactful time.
Although we want to learn from our recent and past successes and always build upon them, a team should not be complacent in planning the steps to "score touchdowns." We should not assume that the very same steps will successfully "complete the pass" from point A to point B each time. The conditions in the organization and in the community are constantly evolving; therefore, the approach to the work must also be adaptable as needed.
So, in this session, Agile in Nonprofits will guide teams in looking at your current state of operations and impact and thinking about how you will reach your desired future state. In this discovery mode, you will analyze the steps that closed the distance between points A and B in the past and brainstorm modified or new ways to arrive there ("new plays for the team to score points") that might be even better than what brought about success in the past.
Learning Description:
- Recognize the Risk of Complacency: You will gain insight about how the mindset of "how we have always done it" creates unacceptable risk and wastes limited resources, particularly in a nonprofit context, where community and organizational conditions are constantly evolving.
- Analyze Current State vs. Desired Future State: You will learn a method for evaluating your team’s current methods and results compared to your nonprofit's desired future state, establishing a clear need to adapt processes rather than simply repeating past steps.
- Conduct Root Cause Analysis on Repetitive Concerns: You will understand how to apply root cause analysis to processes that yield suboptimal results, successfully identifying why your team keeps defaulting to old, comfortable steps instead of simply restating what those old steps were.
Creating a Culture of Feedback
We’ve all been there: you ask for reviews of your work, only to receive a lukewarm “Looks great, no edits!” or a nitpicky “You missed a comma.” *Small sigh.* Although generally well-intentioned, these responses do not help us and our work truly improve. To grow and excel, can we create a purposeful feedback culture?
You probably knew we were going to say, "You bet we can." The key actually lies in shifting from “asking for review” to “asking for feedback”—and it lies in the type of feedback we request. To achieve growth, our mindset needs to move beyond superficial review, such as copy editing a document, and embrace deeper, more intentional evaluation.
True feedback, unlike criticism and correction, is a free education to excellence. This type of meaningful response does not just tell you what to do… it guides you toward new understanding.
In this session, we will provide you with techniques to build or strengthen the culture of feedback in your team.
Learning Objectives:
- Build a Team Culture of Continuous Improvement: You will be able to design a framework to strengthen your team's feedback culture, treating meaningful response as a "free education to excellence" that guides colleagues toward new understanding and drives overall work quality.
- Differentiate among Review, Criticism, and Meaningful Feedback: You will be able to clearly define the distinctions among simple review (e.g., copy editing), criticism, and true, growth-oriented feedback, enabling you to set expectations for your team.
- Apply Strategies for Requesting Intentional Feedback: You will learn and practice at least three specific, actionable techniques for shifting from a general "ask for review" to a targeted "ask for intentional feedback," focusing responses on deep evaluation over superficial correction.
You Crossed the Finish Line...Now What?
Is your team celebrating?
If your answer was "Yes, the big wins!" or "Sometimes," this session is for you!
Many awesome, well-intentioned teams get SO focused on getting the work done that they forget to set short-term milestones and mini-goals along the way that they can celebrate. Teams that *only* celebrate at the end of the major thing--deadline, event, etc.--are missing out on an amazing opportunity to improve HOW their team works together and also expand and enhance WHAT the team accomplishes and recognizes together.
All that from celebrations, you ask?
Yes! Our case studies highlighted in the session show that enacting this concept is truly beneficial to your team's cohesiveness and collaboration. So, during this session, we'll help you develop a celebration plan for your team. To begin, we offer recommendations on how to make the celebrations meaningful, and inexpensive. Also, we guide you through personalizing the celebrations and accolades to the individual preferences of your team members.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop a Celebration Strategy: You will be able to design a low-cost, high-impact "Celebration and Milestone Plan" that integrates frequent, short-term mini-goals into your existing work cycle.
- Align Recognition with Personal Preference: You will be able to identify and implement at least two methods for personalizing team accolades and recognition, ensuring that celebrations are meaningful and align with individual team member preferences.
- Institutionalize Learning from Success: You will learn how to facilitate a brief, post-celebration review process focused on exploring the "how" and "why" behind a success, enabling your team to formalize and replicate effective work patterns in future projects.
Recorded Sessions
Click on the session you are interested in
In the Huddle, Creating a Team Working Agreement
$19.95Imagine that your team’s overall approach and context are in sync in everyone’s minds, just like football players in the huddle, not just about the “what” of their work but also the “why” and the “how.” It's idyllic and achievable.
This shared awareness isn’t just a nicety; it’s a foundation for creating “twice the impact in half the time at a sustainable pace.” You might have heard Agile in Nonprofits mention this (our sacred mantra) once or twice!
In this session, we'll teach you to facilitate creating a Team Working Agreement that provides this alignment, grounding everyone in a mutual understanding.The Burnout Badge: Is a Heroic Effort, Not a Plan
$19.99In the nonprofit space, pulling an all-nighter for a large grant application or putting in multiple 12-hour days leading up to a huge special event is often celebrated, but unfortunately, in some team settings, also expected as the norm despite being a huge risk for burnout for team members.
In this session, we will teach you Agile techniques around capacity planning, for both short- and long-term avoidance of the need for heroic efforts. We will also highlight some specific Agile technique patterns like "swarming" that can prevent individuals on a team from having to attempt heroic things, and rather, have the team work together to address a priority need in a sustainable way.Hairpin turn? Or Dogleg straightaway? What type of curve is our team thinking about responding to versus following a plan
$19.95Can you think of a recent change that required some minor adjustments on your part? Maybe a little wordsmithing? Or a little collaborative brainstorming to address?
Can you now instead think of a recent change that required significant replanning by your team? Lots of "all hands on deck" type conversations as you adjusted to a new community need or situation?
The first change you thought of is sort of like a "dogleg straightaway" in racing: a minor curve, but then quickly back to straight.
The second change you thought of is more like a "hairpin turn" in racing, a really intense curve, maybe even something that feels like a complete 180.
Being prepared to navigate both types of changes, or curves along your journey (as well as all degrees of change in between), is important for your team. Teams that thrive are those that can successfully maneuver from one type of curve to another without having to take the foot off the gas pedal more than what road safety necessitates.
In this session, we will focus on how to help your team be prepared for curves of all shapes and sizes on your journey so that you can best respond to change instead of rigidly following a plan.