Interview with Greg Pitcher (Agile coach from N.Z.)
– about the EA Foundations program
How did you find out about the Enterprise Agility foundations Program?
Greg Pitcher – I have had a connection with Erich Buhler through linked for the last 5 years. Erich mentioned the opportunity and he had a passion for New Zealand, as he did some of his early days in Auckland New Zealand, the kiwi connection. I was extremely fortunate to be given this opportunity. When Erich advised the Enterprise Agility University courses were based on his book Leading Exponential Change, it resonated greatly with me, as I was given a physical inscribed and signed copy of this book from Erich in 2019.
What made you decide to join this program, as an agile coach, consultant, change leader?
Greg Pitcher – I have been starting to expand my horizon into the leadership journey and have come across multiple gaps in why some changes worked out amazingly and others were not as successful or not successful at all. When I looked into this opportunity, I discovered there was some magic, and I wanted to bring this magic to New Zealand. The Enterprise Agility University is an amazing organization and has the very unique amazing niche of bringing science, into human behavior to the forefront of organization change with the responsibility of ensuring Organizational health is not impacted or even better, improved.
What is this program about? How do you collaborate inside this program?
Greg Pitcher – This program is about understanding the challenges and barriers faced by the people and organizations during their efforts to adopt and manage successful changes. The ability to respond to the VUCA world is enhanced by agile methodology and yet organizations fail to embrace it effectively. This program brings out the barriers to such adoption and deals with different types of agility, essential for effective change. I really liked the process of working in pairs and groups where we were regularly collaborating. Peer to peer learning was at its peak.
What is your feedback on the program design and pedagogy?
Greg Pitcher – The program is well designed, offering an umbrella process for facilitating change with agility. The tools and frameworks are designed to be completely flexible, helping consultants to create highly contextual and customized models for individual customer organizations. The pedagogy was completely discussion and handson exercise driven, using state of the art tools like Mural and Welo.
What did you find unique to this program?
Greg Pitcher – I found the niche unique as well as tools and frameworks that cater for various levels of Organization maturity for change. I really liked that the tools and frameworks always took into account the Organization health.
Did you find any of the tools taught in this program useful?
Greg Pitcher – I really like the Change Journey pyramid and loved learning the science around why we as humans act in particular ways in a very easy way to understand NeuroPlasticity.
How did this program help you to become a better change consultant?
Greg Pitcher – This Program has given me more perspective around what mindset shift really means.
It provided tools to be able to communicate in an appropriate level of language for particular audiences.
Do you have any suggestions to improve the program?
Greg Pitcher – Sometimes I felt we dived into the next module of the program without identifying the big picture. Identifying the big picture will assist in many people’s learnings.
Would you recommend this program and why?
Greg Pitcher – I totally recommend this program as it will help anyone who has a vested interest in organizational change, understand what hurdles are on the change journey and how to overcome them. It is very unique in the sense it uses a combination of Erich’s own research, as well as scientifically proven techniques.
