Workshop Agenda Template for a Half-Day Working Session

Copy-ready agenda text

Paste this into Google Docs, Word, Notion or an email. Replace anything in [brackets].

WORKSHOP AGENDA

Workshop title: [Title]
Goal: [One sentence: what the group will have at the end]
Date and time: [Date, start and end time]
Location or link: [Room or video link]
Facilitator: [Name]
Co-facilitator or scribe: [Name]
Participants: [Names, roles, teams]
Pre-work: [Reading or data to review beforehand]

TIMED AGENDA (180 minutes)

0:00  Welcome, goal and ground rules (10 min) | Owner: Facilitator
      State the goal, what the output looks like and the rules: phones away, one conversation at a time, decisions by the named owner.
0:10  Warm-up: current state in one word (10 min) | Owner: Facilitator
      Each person gives one word or number for how things work today. Write them on the board without comment.
0:20  Present the problem and the data (20 min) | Owner: Subject lead
      Five slides at most. Show the facts the group needs to decide, then stop and take clarifying questions only.
0:40  Exercise 1: map the current process (30 min) | Owner: Facilitator
      Small groups of four map the steps on a wall or shared board. Mark delays, handoffs and where people drop out.
1:10  Break (10 min) | Owner: Co-facilitator
      Hold to the time. Use it to photograph the boards and to cluster similar notes.
1:20  Exercise 2: generate options (30 min) | Owner: Facilitator
      Each group writes three ways to fix the biggest delay, quietly and alone for five minutes, then shares. No criticism yet.
1:50  Vote and shortlist (25 min) | Owner: Facilitator
      Give each person three dot votes. Discuss the top three options against cost, effort and risk.
2:15  Decide and assign owners (20 min) | Owner: Decision owner
      The named decision owner picks the option and any conditions. Record the decision exactly as stated.
2:35  Risks and open questions (10 min) | Owner: Scribe
      List what could stop the plan, and who will find out. Park anything that needs a separate meeting.
2:45  Commitments and next steps (10 min) | Owner: Facilitator
      Each person states what they will do and by when. Scribe reads the list back.
2:55  Feedback and close (5 min) | Owner: Facilitator
      Ask each person for one thing that worked and one to change. Say when the output document will arrive.

ACTION ITEMS
Task | Owner | Due
[Task] | [Name] | [Date]

Record every group discussion without a scribe

Workshops produce ideas, votes and commitments across several groups at once. Speak AI joins your Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams workshop, or takes an uploaded recording, and writes up what was said.

• Record the workshop online, or upload audio from the room and from each breakout group.
• Get a transcript with speakers labelled, so you can find who proposed which option.
• Get an automatic summary of the problem, the options, the vote and the final decision.
• Get action items with owners pulled from the commitments round, ready for your tracker.

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