01 · Your team builds
Your team learns to build. In twelve weeks, on real work.
A cohort of 4 to 12 people from your organization scopes, builds, deploys, and measures their own automations, with our coaching. It runs on a Lean Six Sigma frame, so every project has a baseline, an owner, and a control plan by demo day.
- 12 weeks
- four workshop days, then weekly check-ins
- 4 to 12 people
- from one organization, any function
- About 4 hours a week
- during the build weeks
- Your tools
- projects run where your data already is
01What comes out of it
Automations in production, and the people who can build the next one.
This is not a lecture series. Every participant charters a project in week three and presents its result in week twelve.
For the organization
- One to three live automations per participant, running on real records
- A baseline and a measured result for every project
- Control plans: an owner, a monitor, and a shared knowledge file for each automation
- A generative AI acceptable use policy your leadership has approved
- A ranked backlog of the next projects
For each participant
- The full lifecycle of an automation, from charter to control plan
- Working fluency with the AI and automation tools in your stack
- The judgment to evaluate a vendor claim
- Portal access after the program ends
- A project they built and presented, with proof of what it returned
02Who it is for
Business professionals across functions, not the tech team.
The operations leader
Manual work is eating your week and you have no technical team to hand it to. You want the top three time sinks gone and the numbers to prove it.
The HR or training lead
You are responsible for getting the workforce ready and you want a structured program with real deliverables, not a vendor pitch or a lecture series.
The executive
You see automation as an operating advantage. You want the capability in-house, owned by your people, and a results report you can take to the board.
03Program structure
Twelve weeks, one DMAIC cycle per project.
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. The discipline your operations people already respect, applied to automation.
Weeks 1 to 4
Workshops and one-on-ones
Four full training days. Mornings are cohort workshops: how the tools work, a waste walk through your own processes, and a DMAIC charter and baseline for each project. Afternoons are one-on-one sessions on each person’s idea.
Deliverable: A chartered project per participant with a measured baseline
Weeks 5 to 11
Applied build
Each participant builds their automation in your real tools with weekly remote team check-ins. A mid-program tollgate review keeps every project on scope and on the numbers.
Deliverable: Working automations, tested on real records
Week 12
Demo day
Each project is presented to leadership with its baseline, its result, and a control plan: who owns it, how it is monitored, and the shared knowledge file that lets a teammate support it.
Deliverable: Results report, control plans, and a backlog of next targets
04Included
The participant portal.
Every participant gets a private workspace for the program and keeps it afterward. It is the place the baselines, the projects, and the hours live.
Automation builder
Describe a process in plain language and get a step-by-step map with time estimates and tool suggestions.
Recipe generator
Enter your tech stack and get automation blueprints built for the tools you already pay for.
Project tracker
Requirements, milestones, and status for every project from charter to control plan.
ROI tracker
Log hours saved, apply your staff rate, and build the case for each automation as it runs.
Prompt library
Curated prompts by business function: operations, HR, finance, marketing, sales, IT.
Policy generator
Answer a few questions and get a generative AI acceptable use policy ready to share with your team.
One-on-one coaching
Book coaching time to review a build, unblock a problem, or plan the next project.
05Two formats
Private for a team. Shared for a few people.
Pricing is scoped to format and team size and stated in a written statement of work before anything starts.
Teams of 4 to 12 from one organization
Private cohort
The whole program runs for your organization only. Workshops are tailored to your industry, your tools, and your constraints, and every project is one of yours.
Individuals or teams of 1 to 3
Shared cohort
Join a cohort alongside people from other organizations. The same workshops, coaching, and portal access, at a lower commitment for a small team.
New York State employers may qualify for workforce training credits. Ask what applies
Common questions
Does this require a technical background?
No. The cohort is built for business professionals, not engineers. If you can work an inbox, a CRM, and a spreadsheet, you can build an automation in this program.
What is the time commitment?
Four full workshop days in the first month, then about four hours a week during the build weeks, including the weekly check-in. Demo day is a half day.
Do we need to buy new software?
Usually not. Projects are built in the tools you already pay for. Where a free or low-cost tool fills a gap, we recommend it and explain why.
What do people actually build?
Intake and routing, approval workflows, recurring reports, document processing, onboarding flows, and meeting summaries are typical. Each project is scoped to the participant’s own job and measured against their own baseline.
What if we do not have a clear use case yet?
That is what the first four weeks are for. The waste walk and the DMAIC charters turn vague pain into a ranked list of projects with baselines.
Why Lean Six Sigma?
Because it is the measurement discipline your operations people already respect. Every project runs one Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control cycle, so the results are defensible and the automations have owners.
Can grants or training credits offset the cost?
Sometimes. New York State employers, for example, may qualify for training credits. Ask on the call and we will point you at what applies.
What happens after week 12?
Your team keeps portal access, the control plans, and the backlog. Teams that want a pacing partner for the next round move to CoBuild or the Fractional CAIO agreement.
Ready to run a cohort?
Tell us about your team and the processes that eat its week. We will reply with a format, a schedule, and a written scope.
Prefer email? erik@civic-dialog.com