The everyday task
A team uses AI in different ways: some colleagues already experiment, while others need guidance. They practise together on a recurring task: turning meeting notes into an action list.
After the exercise, colleagues should be able to write a clear instruction, distinguish decisions from ideas and check each entry against the notes. AI helps structure free text here; the team must clarify any ownership or commitments missing from the notes. For a few actions that are already clearly structured, a manual list may be enough.
- Experience and working practices differ.
- Not everyone knows which tools are approved.
- Exercises need to match actual tasks.
Mini exercise: what should these notes become?
Fictional notes and a completed sample result for illustration. This is one possible exercise, not a promised component of a particular training package.
- Notes provided as input
- Team meeting, 20 October: an internal information session on 29 October has been agreed. Lea will check by 22 October whether there are enough information sheets. The room booking still needs to be confirmed; nobody was assigned and no deadline was agreed. A newsletter was mentioned as an idea but was not agreed.
- Instruction to the AI
- Use only these notes. Separate decisions, actions and open ideas. For each action, state the task, owner and deadline. Write “unresolved” for missing information. Do not add commitments or assign owners.
- Decision in the sample result
- The internal information session will take place on 29 October.
- Action 1 in the sample result
- Task: check whether there are enough information sheets. Owner: Lea. Deadline: 22 October.
- Action 2 in the sample result
- Task: confirm the room booking. Owner: unresolved. Deadline: unresolved. Question for the team: who will confirm the booking, and by when?
- Idea in the sample result
- Newsletter: an idea discussed, not an agreed decision. No action, owner or deadline is assigned to it.
- How the team checks the output
- Compare both actions with the notes. “Lea will confirm the room by 22 October” would be wrong: that person and date belong to the other action. The room question remains unresolved until clarified; the date of the information session is not an agreed deadline for the task.
How the workflow could look
Starting with the chosen everyday task, the team combines preparation, hands-on practice and later use at work. One possible approach:
Agree needs and rules
Discuss tasks and existing use together. Record approved tools, permitted data and points of contact.
Choose a suitable seminar
The Foundation and Practical Seminars last one day; the Intensive Workshop lasts two days. Agree exercises and preparation within the official package; arrange further support separately.
Write instructions and check results
Everyone works on the fictional notes using the same instruction. The group compares drafts with the sample result, marks invented information and records the review steps in a shared template.
Try templates in daily work
Use practised templates for suitable tasks. Record questions, mistakes and correction effort and use these findings to improve the approach.
A specific learning objective instead of a general tool demo
The mini exercise checks three skills: describe a task with its source and output format, check the result against the original and refer uncertainties back for clarification. A fluent answer alone does not demonstrate these skills.
The team can reuse the instruction as a template and adapt it for the next meeting. The review questions stay the same: is each action supported by the notes? Do the owner and deadline actually belong to this action? Has an idea accidentally become a decision?
Preparation and transfer into everyday work
Before training, agree tasks, existing access and permitted sample data. Identify different experience levels. Anyone without an approved account needs an agreed way to participate; accounts and data rules should not be improvised during exercises.
After training, an internal contact can ask colleagues to reuse the template on a suitable task. Collect feedback about corrections, unclear rules and format mismatches. Any additional support included in the engagement must be agreed separately.
How useful learning transfer becomes visible
Compare drafts before and after the exercise. Assess not only speed but missing actions, incorrect owners and the ability to identify uncertainty. Fluent output containing false decisions does not meet the learning objective.
Transfer becomes tangible when colleagues use the template independently, detect errors and know when to ask. If use does not continue, check access, task fit and internal support first. Non-use does not automatically indicate a lack of motivation.
How to check what the team has learned
Ask colleagues to work through a new, similarly structured note without assistance. Compare the result with the original and discuss corrections. If you also compare effort, include time spent reviewing and asking follow-up questions.
- Can colleagues write a clear instruction and choose approved tools and permitted data?
- Does the list include every agreed action without turning ideas into new decisions?
- Are missing owners and deadlines left unresolved, with questions to clarify them?
- Can the team use the template independently later and spot incorrect assignments?