Planning and Productivity with AI
What is this course about?
This practical two-day course gives delegates practical tools to plan more effectively, turn goals into clear priorities and translate plans into achievable actions and results. It takes delegates from planning their day and week through to planning tasks, projects, strategic priorities and values, using practical tools including the Eisenhower Matrix, the 10-step to-do-list method, Path of Completion, Project Mapping, SMARTER goals, the Simple Project Management Approach, the Balanced Scorecard, the 7 Value Medals and the Logical Framework Approach. Throughout the course, AI is used where it can strengthen the planning process, helping delegates test ideas, identify gaps, explore possibilities and develop first drafts while keeping the thinking, judgement and decision-making with the delegate.
Key content covered
Why Planning Matters
We establish why effective planning matters and how planning helps set direction, create alignment, simplify decision-making and communicate what needs to happen. Delegates are introduced to the six planning categories and the overall planning journey that runs through the two days.
Topics include
• The importance of planning and the five reasons to plan
• The Driver Model: Situation Assessment, Strategic Direction, Implementation Planning and Monitoring
• Six planning categories: Daily, Weekly, Project Implementation, Goal Setting, Strategic Planning and Value Planning
Weekly and Daily Planning
Delegates build the judgement needed to distinguish urgent from important, then turn weekly priorities into practical daily actions. The focus stays on clear human judgement, with AI used only after the delegate has made the key prioritisation decisions.
Topics include
• The Eisenhower Matrix: urgent, less urgent, important and less important
• The 10-step to-do-list method and practical ways to organise daily actions
• Using AI after prioritisation to support follow-up actions, where appropriate
Path of Completion and Project Mapping
Delegates learn to work backwards from a required outcome and identify the steps, dependencies and potential obstacles that could affect completion. They then apply the eight-box Project Mapping tool to a task or event and use AI to create a first draft that they review and correct.
Topics include
• Path of Completion: working backwards from the required outcome
• Identifying dependencies, delays, information, resources, people and other factors that may affect completion
• Project Mapping: Objectives, Assumptions, Events, Tactics, Resources, Information, Risks and People
Goals and Project Planning
Delegates turn goals into clearer plans using the SMARTER approach and the 12-category Simple Project Management Approach. AI is used to pressure-test goals and develop first-pass project plans, with delegates applying their own judgement to identify gaps, errors and missing information.
Topics include
• SMARTER goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound, Ethical/Emotionally Resonant and Re-evaluated
• The 12 project-planning categories: Scope, Contract, Customer, Value, Cost, Risk, Monitoring, Team, Completion, Communications, Resources and Quality
• Using AI to challenge a goal and develop a first-pass project plan for review
Strategic, Value and Logical Planning
Delegates move from individual planning into strategic and broader workplace thinking. They apply the Balanced Scorecard, 7 Value Medals and Logical Framework Approach to test priorities, measures, value and the logic of a plan, including AI-supported activities that require delegates to critique the output.
Topics include
• Balanced Scorecard: Financial, Customer, Business Process and Innovation perspectives
• 7 Value Medals and applying different value perspectives to a decision
• Logical Framework Approach: Goals, Purpose, Events, Activities, Resources, Risks, Indicators and verification
Choosing the Right Planning Tool and Applying AI
Delegates bring the planning tools together and learn that the best tool depends on the situation rather than on personal preference or habit. They practise choosing between Project Mapping, the 12-category approach and the Logical Framework, then identify practical ways AI can support planning at personal, team and workplace level.
Topics include
• Choosing the right planning tool for the scale, complexity and requirements of the situation
• AI as a planning and thinking partner: drafting, questioning, checking and identifying gaps
• Moving from individual AI use to possible team and workplace applications while maintaining critical judgement and appropriate confidentiality
Run Planning and Productivity with AI for your team
Every workshop we publish is also delivered in-house — at your premises anywhere in South Africa and beyond, at one of our venues, or live online. Before we deliver, our course designers can adapt Planning and Productivity with AI to your team: your industry’s examples in the case work, your real challenges in the exercises, your operational rhythm in the schedule. We meet you, agree the outline together, and only then do you place the order.
In-house rates drop per delegate as the group grows — for larger teams it is usually the more affordable option as well as the better-fitting one.