Opportunity

The company hosted monthly in-person workshops to introduce leaders to generative AI (Gen AI) and the internal Gen AI platform. As demand for the workshop grew and more participants registered, the global learning team asked me to design prework so they could reduce the workshop duration from 2 days to 1 day. However, the external vendor hired to develop the workshop could not produce any learning objectives to base the prework on.

Audience

The Gen AI Bootcamp was open to all people managers in the company that could travel to the U.S. headquarters for 2 days. The chief information and digital officer strongly encouraged all senior leaders in the company to attend. Roles in the audience ranged from scientists to data analysts, to HR professionals, to manufacturing and operations leads. About 15% had been with the company in excess of twenty-five years.

Action

Without clearly defined learning objectives from the vendor that created the workshop, I first reverse-engineered learning objectives using existing workshop materials. Then I obtained approval from the program sponsors and internal subject matter experts on those objectives. The prework I developed worked backward from terminal and enabling objectives to assessments that required participants to demonstrate that they could accomplish the objectives to the supporting content necessary to obtain the skills they needed. 

Impact

Duration of the Gen AI Bootcamp decreased by 50% (from 2 days to 1), reducing travel accommodation costs for participants and allowing the company to offer more sessions to satisfy demand.