Apply Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Immersion Session on Coaching Agile Teams for Wellbeing & Performance: sharing insights, tools and data from an applied positive psychology based approach to organisational coaching. (#36)

Richard T Parton 1
  1. Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The agile movement is a rapidly growing grass-roots movement founded in humanistic values, such as valuing individuals and interactions over processes tools, and emphasizing self-determination, pro-social behaviour and personal growth. Agile teams and the agile approach therefore present a unique opening for positive psychology based leadership and coaching. 

The session will be primarily a how-to in delivering effective organisational positive psychology coaching from an experienced agile coach and trainer who also teaches at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne. 

It will provide attendees with a playful and interactive introduction to the agile approach. It will share the curriculum and framework developed for a positive psychology based course and organisational coaching approach, centred on Solution Focused coaching, Self-Determination Theory and Team Flow - these were developed in collaboration with the agile community in Melbourne to support coaches and leaders to support the wellbeing and performance of both teams and individuals with an approach founded on insights from the positive psychology literature.

A number of coaching tools and techniques will be shared with participants to enable them to adapt and apply them in their own practice. Evaluative and case study data will also be discussed in terms of implications for application.  

  1. Abbas, N., Gravell, A. M., & Wills, G. B. (2008, June). Historical roots of agile methods: Where did “Agile thinking” come from?. In International conference on agile processes and extreme programming in software engineering (pp. 94-103). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
  2. Cameron, K., Mora, C., Leutscher, T., & Calarco, M. (2011). Effects of positive practices on organizational effectiveness. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(3), 266-308.
  3. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Canadian psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 49(3), 182.
  4. Grant, A. M. (2012). Making positive change: A randomized study comparing solution-focused vs. problem-focused coaching questions. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 31(2), 21-35.
  5. Kern, M. L., Williams, P., Spong, C., Colla, R., Sharma, K., Downie, A., & Oades, L. G. (2020). Systems informed positive psychology. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15(6), 705-715.
  6. 6. Van den Hout, J. J., Davis, O. C., & Walrave, B. (2016). The application of team flow theory. In Flow experience (pp. 233-247). Springer, Cham.
  • Keywords: Business and Organizations, Career and Work, Coaching, Flow, Leadership/Management
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