ACCELERATE Preparation

Bring a real problem. Leave with a working solution.

ACCELERATE is a two-day working sprint. Day one: define the problem and test your assumptions. Day two: build a working solution and measure the evidence. 4–8 people, two half days, one real outcome. No AI expertise required.

Preparation Checklist What to bring What happens Good problems Common concerns FAQ

30 minutes of preparation. That's all we ask.

Optional, but strongly recommended. Leaders who arrive with a clear problem get measurably better outcomes.

  • Read this page (10 minutes)
  • Identify 2–3 candidate problems (15 minutes)
  • Check your laptop is ready and you can access the tools your TIP leader has confirmed (5 minutes)

Your preparation checklist

What to bring into the room

Your candidate problems (bring 2–3)

  • A process that is manual, repetitive, or error-prone
  • Something with clear inputs and outputs (a document goes in, a decision comes out)
  • A workflow owned by someone in the room
  • Rough sense of volume: how often does this happen. How long does it take.
  • You don't need a spreadsheet. A sentence is enough: "We spend 4 hours a week reformatting client reports"

Your mindset

  • Willingness to say "this might be wrong"
  • Openness to discovering the problem is not what you thought
  • Comfort with building something imperfect. A thin slice, not a finished product
  • Curiosity about what changes when the work takes 10 minutes instead of 4 hours

What happens in the session

ACCELERATE runs over two half days with four focused sessions. Day one: define the problem. Day two: build the solution.

Good ACCELERATE problems vs bad ones

The single biggest factor in a successful ACCELERATE session is the problem you bring. Here is how to tell if yours is right.

Good ACCELERATE problems

  • Repetitive, manual, or error-prone
  • Clear inputs and outputs
  • Owned by someone in the room
  • Sits within a single function, with IT available to support deployment
  • Annoying enough that people care about fixing it
  • Small enough to test in two half days
  • Examples: "Reformatting weekly reports", "Reviewing contract clauses", "Summarising customer feedback", "Preparing board packs"

Problems that don't work here

  • "End-to-end transformation" (too big)
  • "Fix the culture" (not a workflow)
  • Crosses multiple functions and needs multiple sign-offs (too slow to deploy)
  • Requires enterprise-wide data access nobody has arranged
  • Owned by nobody in the room
  • Politically sensitive with no decision rights present
  • "We should probably do something with AI" (no specific problem)

Common concerns

Most of these are normal. All of them are solvable.

Where ACCELERATE sits

ACCELERATE is the hinge point in your AI fluency journey. You move from Integration (L2) to Redesign (L3) — the moment AI stops being a tool you use and starts being a method that changes how your team works.

L0 Unaware

No AI literacy. Fear and uncertainty.

L1 Literacy

Basic awareness. Occasional use.

L2 Integration

Daily AI habits. ≈20% time-capital.

L3 Redesign

Workflow shifts. Insourcing gains.

ACCELERATE TARGET
L4 Transformation

AI-native model. Agents and people.

ACCELERATE targets L2L3. Prerequisites: PERSONAL (L0→L1) and TEAM (L1→L2) completed. Your first sessions built Mindset. ACCELERATE activates Method. The result is measurable Money and lasting Momentum.

Explore the full AI Fluency Model →

Frequently asked questions

Recommended reading before your session

Two short books that capture exactly how ACCELERATE thinks about problems and evidence. Neither is about AI. Both will sharpen how you approach the session.

The Mom Test

  • By Rob Fitzpatrick. How to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you
  • The core lesson: stop asking people what they want. Watch what they do. Ask about specific past behaviour, not future intentions
  • In ACCELERATE, we apply the same discipline: test assumptions with evidence, not opinions. If you read one book before the session, make it this one
  • Amazon UK · Audible

The Lean Startup

  • By Eric Ries. How constant innovation creates radically successful businesses
  • The core lesson: build the smallest thing that tests your riskiest assumption. Measure. Learn. Decide. That cycle is exactly what ACCELERATE does over two days
  • If "thin slice" and "evidence over intuition" resonate with you, this book explains why the method works
  • Amazon UK · Audible

Practical details