Three days of focusing
This is the full programme. The first day also stands on its own. The first day is day 1 below, as a workshop on its own.
Day 1
Seeing differently
AI used on their own work, learned to give a brief, their week mapped out and one job chosen to try.
- 09:00The promise: you’ll learn to do it yourself
- 09:15One task you never want to do againHands-on
- 09:45Heavy lifting and craft, and what AI is and isn’t
- 10:45Trust is built in: the story of the automatic lift
- 11:30Live: a job from the room, from wish to brief
- 12:00Your first brief for the apprenticeHands-on
- 13:15The seven lines of a good brief
- 14:00Write your own brief and check it togetherHands-on
- 15:00Your task map: what do you lift, what is your craft?Hands-on
- 16:15One job, fifteen minutes: the assignment for afterwards
Day 2
Learning to work with AI
Practised six things you do with AI, the five questions for checking, and the first briefs in the shared folder.
- 09:00Looking back: what worked, what needed steering?
- 09:45Six things you do with AI, and checking as a craft
- 10:45Reading and writing: demo and practice roundHands-on
- 11:45Live steering: “where did you get that from?”
- 13:00Talking and looking: with your phone at handHands-on
- 14:00Calculating, sorting and searching: no source, no factHands-on
- 15:15Your three best briefs in the shared folderHands-on
- 16:00Which job do you hand over on day 3?
Day 3
Letting it do the lifting
A standing assistant of their own, tested on ten cases, the traffic light and working agreements, champions and a 90-day plan.
- 09:00Today you build your own assistant
- 09:30Live: from brief to standing assistant in five minutes
- 09:50Build your standing assistantHands-on
- 11:30The test: ten cases, and a colleague who tries itHands-on
- 13:00The traffic light, working agreements and AI literacy
- 13:40The market: try each other’s assistantsHands-on
- 14:40The next step: arranging the work differently
- 15:15How it sticks: champions and team meetings
- 15:30Your 90-day planHands-on
- 16:10Closing and certificates
The two-day version: day 1 stays, day 2 mixes reading and writing, talking and looking, your standing assistant, the traffic light and the 90-day plan. The test on ten cases becomes homework for the follow-up session.
The programme was first written for a construction company. In the intake we replace the examples with ones from your sector.
Three stories that really happened
This isn’t the first time technology has changed work. These stories come up in the room, with the question of what they mean for you.
What do you lift, what is your craft?
Heavy lifting: heavy, repeated, not your craft
- Retyping from one system to another
- Searching through email, folders and WhatsApp
- Confirming, reminding, chasing
- Writing up reports
- Answering the same question again
Craft: what you’re there for
- Deciding
- Reassuring a customer
- Solving things when they go wrong
- Delivering good work
- Leading people
What heavy lifting could look like at your company
Construction and installation
- A daily report from a voice memo
- The message about tomorrow’s schedule
- A snag list from a spoken walk-round
Wholesale
- Confirming delivery times per supplier
- Finding what’s still missing in a request for quote
- Sorting a messy order list
Hospitality
- Translating the menu for foreign guests
- A first reply to a review
- A work instruction for new colleagues
Office and services
- Minutes with an action list
- Summarising and questioning a long contract
- A first reply to a complaint
Examples to make it concrete, not clients. In the intake we find your own jobs.
Six things your team will practise
Reading
Have a contract or long email summarised, and ask questions about it.
Writing
A first version of an email, a quote or a reply.
Talking
Speak instead of type: memos, minutes, action points.
Looking
Have a photo described: a defect, a type plate, a note.
Calculating and sorting
Not sums, but formulas, tables and lists.
Searching
Look up rules and products, with the source alongside.
What is a standing assistant?
A brief you keep, with your own examples and standard texts added. You no longer need to retype it each time, and you don’t need an IT department. In Copilot it’s called an agent, in ChatGPT a GPT or project, in Claude a project, in Gemini a Gem.
Two or three good examples do more than a long instruction.
- Name
- Schedule messages
- Task
- You write customers a message about tomorrow’s schedule.
- Instructions
- What must be in it, the tone, the length, formal or informal.
- Examples
- Three messages the planner liked.
- Knowledge
- Per type of job: what the customer needs to prepare.
- Check
- Always flag the appointments you’re unsure of.
The traffic light: what may go in?
A rule of thumb, to agree with whoever handles privacy at your company. Not legal advice.
Fine
Your own texts, public information, manuals, situations without names.
Only in the business environment
Customer names, addresses, quotes. Only where the company has made agreements about it.
No
Citizen service numbers, people’s medical or financial details, passwords, confidential documents.
The six working agreements
This is the starting point. The group adapts them, because you keep agreements better when you made them yourself.
Business
Work in the business version, not on your private account.
The traffic light
Personal data only where it’s allowed.
The emergency button
Whatever goes out, a person reads first.
Keep
Good briefs go in a shared folder.
Owner
Every standing assistant has someone who looks after it.
Report
Spotted a mistake? Say so. It gets better, and nobody gets the blame.
What everyone takes away
A 16-page workbook
With the exercises from the days and twelve ready-made briefs for AI. Those twelve were first written for construction; we adapt them to your sector.
A certificate of attendance
Saying what was covered, per person. Good for your AI literacy file.
A folder of briefs
Shared in Teams, SharePoint or Google Drive, and already filled on the first day. With the three-day programme.
Ten five-minute topics
To keep it alive in team meetings, led by the champions.
A 90-day plan
Written down per participant, and signed with a colleague present.
Who it’s for
- 8 to 14 participants, ideally 12. Mix the roles: office and shop floor, planners and people who see customers.
- No prior knowledge needed. Those who already use AI go faster and help others.
- One company per group, because everyone practises on their own work.
- A manager is welcome to join, as a participant.
Afterwards
- Within a week: the agreements on one A4, the certificates and a short report to the client.
- Ten five-minute topics for the team meetings you already have.
- After 30 days: the follow-up session, two hours on site or online.
- After 90 days: a talk about the plan. What works, you expand. What doesn’t, you drop.
What we need from you
- For each participant, a working login to the business AI assistant, on laptop and phone. Tested beforehand.
- One laptop per person.
- A projector with HDMI or USB-C, power at every table and good wifi, because everyone works at once.
- Five to ten real, anonymised examples: a customer email, a report, a messy list.
- Whoever handles privacy and IT, for one conversation in the intake.
When this isn’t the right fit
You’re looking for an inspiring speaker for an hour.
Here they work themselves, all day.
You want a system that does the work automatically.
That’s a different project: AI workflows at Van Riel (in Dutch).
You want a guarantee of time saved.
We don’t give one. What it yields depends on what happens next.
You want to join on your own.
We currently work per company, because everyone practises on their own work with their own colleagues.
Let’s get this in focus.
An introductory talk is free. Together we look at which work keeps coming back, which AI tools you have and which format fits.
Book a free introduction