In most companies AI is already used every day, but everyone does it their own way. One person has built their own workflows, someone else writes emails with help from Copilot and most people experiment when they find the time. That works for the individual but not for the company. As long as no one has decided what AI should be used for, who may change a way of working and how it is followed up, it never gets beyond scattered experiments. That transition, from individual testing to a way of working that applies to everyone, is the leadership team's job.
Without a stated focus, no one knows which AI initiatives matter. That also makes it impossible to prioritise them or follow them up.
Employees are encouraged to experiment, but it is rarely clear who has the mandate to redesign a process for the whole department. So the good ideas stay with the person who came up with them.
A new way of working takes time to practise. If calendars are already full, leadership needs to decide what can be put on hold for a while.
None of these three questions can be answered further down the organisation. That is why we start with the leadership team.
We take the decisions in this order because the first one shapes the other four. Without a clear focus you cannot choose ways of working. Without ways of working there is nothing to follow up.
What should AI improve first in your business? It might be more time with customers, higher quality in delivery, shorter lead times or less administration. You choose one main focus, so that every other decision has something to rest on.
Which three to five use cases should apply to everyone in the company? They become your shared baseline, the one you can communicate, train people on and require.
How will you know if it works? You decide which metrics are tied to the focus and the ways of working, who follows them up and how often.
Leadership owns direction and budget. But who owns day-to-day execution, with what mandate and how much dedicated time? Without a name and time set aside, very little happens.
What is allowed, what is sensitive and what is off limits? Which tools meet your information security requirements and when must a human always review the output? You leave the room with a first version you can use straight away.
You are not doing this on your own. We prepare, facilitate and document, so the leadership team can put all its energy into discussing and deciding.
We start with a preparatory call with the person commissioning the workshop, usually the CEO or whoever owns the AI question. We go through where you stand today, which tools you have and which questions are causing friction. If you like, we send a short survey to the participants in advance. Based on that, we prepare the material and the questions that need to be put on the table. If the group lacks a shared grounding in what AI can actually do, we recommend foundation training first. Read more about the packages below.
We ask the questions, keep the pace and make sure the group reaches decisions instead of getting stuck in discussion. AI is in the room as a working tool. We use it to ask follow-up questions, challenge assumptions and bring in perspectives you may not have considered. You discuss, prioritise and decide. We take the notes.
We document everything you decide and compile it into a decision document you can use internally straight away. Depending on the package, it includes:
What is included afterwards depends on the format. After a half day or a full day you receive a follow-up report in which we summarise the decisions, what we saw in the room and what we recommend as next steps. After a full day we also go through the report together in a follow-up meeting. The short format ends with a list of remaining questions and suggestions for how to take them forward. If you want continued support, such as training for the rest of the company or help with implementation, we look at that then.
The full day is the format in which the leadership team makes all five decisions. The half day covers the first four and produces a first draft of the ground rules. The short format suits you when you want to give the AI question a clear start in a meeting that is already booked.
Suits a leadership team that wants to give the AI question a clear start, for example as a session in a kick-off or a leadership team meeting.
Suits a leadership team that already has a shared grounding in AI and wants to reach decisions on focus, ways of working, follow-up and ownership.
Suits you when you want to leave the room with all five decisions made and a clear plan ahead. Foundation training for the leadership team is included, so everyone shares the same picture of what AI can do before the decisions are made.
Do you have several companies, several leadership teams or a larger initiative in which the workshop is one step of several? Then we adapt the format. It often becomes a combination of training for the whole company, a workshop for leadership and tailored training for each department. We call that approach SPARK.
Have you chosen the half day or the short format but need a shared foundation first? Then we add foundation training as a separate step before the workshop. The training gives everyone the same vocabulary and the same picture of what AI can and cannot do. Read more about our training.
Here are three examples of what an engagement can look like, from a session in a kick-off to an initiative for the whole company. We have led many more leadership team kick-offs in different industries. Everything can be scaled up or down depending on the size of the group and how far you want to go.
The leadership team wanted to give AI a clear place in its annual kick-off. We prepared material built on the participants' own tasks and led a session in which the 14 participants gained a shared starting point and began to prioritise. The group left with documented material to keep working on internally.
The audit firm set aside two half days of its conference on Gotland for AI. Day one covered the basics, day two the participants' own workflows. Before the day was over, twelve new ideas for business development projects were in the manager's inbox. The next step is a full-day workshop with the leadership team, tailored training for each department and quick wins in everyday work. It is an example of SPARK, our method for taking AI from testing to a way of working. Read more about SPARK.
The brief was to reach the entire management layer in two days. On day one we gave a talk for 200 managers on what AI means for their role and their everyday work. On day two we ran fast-paced workshops in which managers and team leads built their own personal assistant in Google Gemini, linked to something that makes their working week easier. A talk to give everyone the same picture, a workshop to turn it into something that works on Monday.
A good workshop depends on the right questions coming up and on the group actually making decisions. We at GrowingSmart prepare the material, ask the questions that are hard to ask internally and hold the discussion together until decisions are made. For larger leadership teams, several companies or more extensive initiatives, we bring in other experts from our network. The goal is that you can drive the work forward on your own once we have left.
Works in the space between generative AI, film and leadership. Helps companies understand and apply generative AI. Course director at Berghs School of Communication.
Long experience of leading complex change processes tied to strategic renewal and AI-driven transformation. Works in the space between technology and people.
Corporate lawyer with over 20 years of experience, co-founder of Wisepoint and AddComply. Guides organisations through digital transformation with a focus on the EU AI Act.
Experts who build AI-driven agent processes and integrate them with your existing systems to create automated, intelligent workflows.
Experts in technical SEO and Answer Engine Optimization who help you build long-term digital visibility in traditional search engines and in AI-driven answer engines.
IT security specialists who make sure your use of AI has the right levels of protection, risk management and compliance with security requirements.
Book twenty minutes with Angelika. She asks the questions needed to understand your situation and the size of your leadership team, then comes back with a proposal on format and price.