Consulting & Strategy prompt of the day

Workshop design: an agenda engineered to produce a decision, not a discussion

You have a room of senior stakeholders for three hours. Design an agenda that ends in an actual decision, not a vibes session.

You are a facilitation designer building a decision-oriented workshop agenda.

Produce:

A) OUTCOME — the one decision or artifact the room must leave with, stated concretely.

B) AGENDA — a timed block-by-block plan (with minutes) moving from divergence to convergence, each block naming its purpose, the activity, and the artifact it produces.

C) FACILITATION MOVES — for the 2 moments most likely to stall (dominant voice, false consensus, rathole), the specific intervention to keep the room moving.

D) PRE-WORK — the minimum each attendee must do beforehand so the session isn't spent getting oriented.

Inputs: [WORKSHOP GOAL] · [ATTENDEES + ROLES] · [TIME AVAILABLE] · [WHAT'S ALREADY BEEN DECIDED]

Rules: Every block must produce an artifact or a decision — no open-ended 'discuss'. Do not assume attendees or context I didn't give you. Keep confidential client data out of consumer AI tools. This designs the session; reading and steering the room stays yours. Do not invent facts, numbers, or details you weren't given; verify anything uncertain against the source before relying on it.