Corporate AI Workshops
A working session with an outcome, not a presentation with a lunch.
What is corporate workshops?
A corporate AI workshop is a facilitated working session where people from several functions examine a real problem together and leave with a decision or a plan, as distinct from a training session where content is delivered to an audience.
The word workshop is used for two entirely different things. One is a presentation with questions at the end. The other is a group doing work in a room and producing something by the time they leave.
Only the second is worth the cost of taking twelve people out of their jobs for a day. If the output is that everybody now knows more, an email would have been cheaper.
The value in a cross functional room is not the content. It is that the operations manager and the finance lead hear each other constraints, which never happens in the normal week.
What has to be agreed before a workshop
Duara facilitates AI workshops from Nairobi, usually for cross functional groups deciding where to start or resolving a disagreement about what to build.
We insist on a defined output before agreeing a workshop. Sessions booked without one become presentations, and a presentation delivered to twelve senior people who cleared a day is an expensive way to share information they could have read.
Who this is for
- Departments disagree about where to start
- A decision needs several functions in one room
- Previous sessions produced no outcome
- You need a plan rather than more awareness
Industries we serve
- Banking and financial services
- Manufacturing groups
- Insurance
- Healthcare organisations
- Large retail
- Public sector bodies
Problems this solves
These are situations where the obstacle is agreement between functions rather than knowledge within them.
- Workshops that are presentations. People are shown material for a day and leave with awareness rather than a decision, at considerable cost in salaried time.
- Functions that disagree. Operations and finance want different things and the disagreement has never been examined in one room.
- No decision at the end. The session concludes with next steps that nobody owns and nothing changes.
- Constraints nobody hears. Each function assumes the others are being difficult, because their actual constraints are never explained.
What we deliver
A defined output agreed before booking, a cross functional group working on a real problem, facilitation that surfaces the disagreements, and a decision with named owners by the end.
A defined output agreed before the session
A real problem worked on rather than demonstrated
Disagreements surfaced rather than avoided
A decision with named owners
A written record of what was agreed
An honest note of what was not resolved
Features
- An output defined before booking. Without one the session becomes a presentation, and a presentation to twelve senior people is an expensive email.
- Real problems, not case studies. The group works on something the organisation actually faces, which is the only thing that holds attention past lunch.
- Disagreement surfaced deliberately. The useful part of a cross functional room is hearing constraints, and polite avoidance wastes the whole day.
- Named owners before people leave. Actions without a name attached are not actions, and everybody in the room knows it.
- What was not resolved is recorded. A workshop that pretends everything was settled leaves the same disagreement to resurface in a month.
Benefits
- A decision rather than awareness. The organisation leaves knowing what it will do, which is what justified the day.
- Functions understand each other. Hearing the finance constraint directly does more than a year of the operations team assuming.
- Faster than a sequence of meetings. A day in one room replaces six weeks of partial conversations between pairs of people.
- Momentum that survives the week. Named owners and a written record are what stop the energy dissipating by Wednesday.
Technologies we use
- Output definition. Agreeing what must exist by the end before the session is scheduled.
- Pre work. Gathering the information the group will need so the day is not spent finding it.
- Facilitation. Running the room so quieter functions are heard and disagreement surfaces early.
- Decision capture. Recording what was agreed, by whom, with what deadline, before people leave.
- Follow through. A short written record circulated while the session is still recent.
The output defines the workshop. Once you know what must exist by five o clock, the structure of the day designs itself, and without it no amount of good facilitation helps.
How the process works, step by step
Workshops are usually one day, occasionally two half days, with pre work gathered beforehand so the room is not spent on information gathering.
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Step 1
Free scoping call
We establish what decision you need and whether a workshop is the right way to reach it.
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Step 2
Output agreed
What must exist by the end is written down, and we would decline the booking without it.
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Step 3
Pre work gathered
Information the group will need is collected beforehand rather than assembled in the room.
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Step 4
The session
The group works on the real problem, with disagreement surfaced rather than politely avoided.
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Step 5
Record circulated
Decisions, owners and unresolved items are written up while the session is recent.
Quality assurance and how we work
The commitments attached to taking a room full of people out of their jobs.
- We require a defined output before booking. Sessions without one become presentations, and a presentation to twelve senior people is an expensive way to share readable information.
- We surface disagreement rather than avoiding it. Polite avoidance wastes the one thing a cross functional room offers, which is hearing each other constraints.
- Actions leave with names attached. An action without an owner is not an action, and everybody in the room already knows that.
- We record what was not resolved. Pretending everything was settled leaves the same disagreement to resurface within a month.
- We say when a workshop is the wrong format. Some questions need a decision from one person rather than a day from twelve, and we would say so.
Frequently asked questions about corporate workshops
What makes a workshop different from training?
Training delivers content to an audience. A workshop is a group doing work and producing something by the time they leave.
Will you run one without a defined output?
No. Sessions booked without one become presentations, and that is an expensive way to share information people could have read.
What if we do not know what output we want?
Then the scoping call is the useful step, and sometimes the conclusion is that a workshop is not the right format yet.
Why cross functional?
Because the value is hearing constraints directly. The operations manager and the finance lead rarely explain theirs to each other otherwise.
Do you avoid conflict in the room?
No, we surface it. Polite avoidance wastes the one thing a cross functional session offers.
How long is a workshop?
Usually one day, occasionally two half days, with pre work gathered beforehand so the room is not spent finding information.
How many people should attend?
Enough functions to make the decision and few enough that everybody speaks. Twelve is usually the upper end.
What do we leave with?
A decision, named owners, deadlines and an honest record of what was not resolved.
Why record unresolved items?
Because pretending everything was settled leaves the same disagreement to resurface in a month, having wasted the day.
Does a workshop work over video?
Less effectively. The value depends on functions hearing each other properly, which remote formats noticeably reduce.
Do we need AI knowledge beforehand?
No, and pre work covers what the group needs. A session that assumes prior study excludes half the room.
Will it produce a project plan?
It can, though a decision with owners is usually more valuable than a detailed plan produced under time pressure.
What if senior people dominate?
That is a facilitation job. A room where only the senior voices are heard produces a decision that was already made.
Can it resolve a disagreement between departments?
Often, provided both are in the room. A workshop with one side absent produces a decision that does not hold.
Is this suitable for a board?
Sometimes, though boards usually need a shorter decision focused format than a full working day.
What preparation do we need to do?
Pre work we specify, usually gathering figures or documents. It is deliberately light so it actually gets done.
Can it be combined with training?
Yes, though we would keep them distinct within the day, since mixing them tends to dilute both.
What if the decision needs more information?
That is a legitimate output. Establishing exactly what is missing is more useful than deciding without it.
Is what is said in the room confidential?
Yes, and the written record covers decisions rather than who argued for what.
What does a workshop cost?
Duration and group size determine it, quoted after the scoping call.
Glossary of terms
Workshop terms in plain language.
- Output
- What must exist by the end of the session, agreed before it is booked.
- Pre work
- Information gathered beforehand so the session is not spent collecting it.
- Facilitation
- Running the room so the useful conversation happens rather than the comfortable one.
- Cross functional
- Involving several departments, which is the point rather than a scheduling detail.
- Parking
- Recording an unresolved issue explicitly rather than leaving it ambiguous.
- Owner
- The named person responsible for an agreed action.
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Talk to us about corporate workshops
Write down what you would want to exist by five o clock. If you cannot, a workshop is not the right format yet.
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