AI Training for Teams in NZ: 10 Hands-On Exercises That Actually Stick

Most “AI training” fizzles out after the workshop. People nod, try a couple of prompts… then go back to the old way. Let’s fix that.

This guide gives you 10 practical exercises you can run with your team—today—that create reusable assets and muscle memory. Every exercise is designed for New Zealand organisations (small teams through to mid-market) and aligns with how Kiwis actually work: Gmail, Google Docs/Sheets, calendar, Xero, and shared drives. If you’re searching for ai training nz or chatgpt training nz, use this as your playbook.

We’ll focus on the things that stick: prompts your staff will reuse, SOP drafting, meeting summarisation, and email triage—plus six more exercises that turn one-off demos into repeatable workflows.

If you’d like help facilitating this as a 1–2 day program (or general ai chatgpt trinaing), start with my AI & ChatGPT Training.

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How to run these exercises (quick facilitator guide)

• Timebox: 60–90 minutes per module.
• Team size: 3–6 people per group. Mix roles (ops, sales, finance).
• Output over theory: Each exercise ends with a saved asset (Doc, Sheet, or template) that lives in your shared drive.
• Human-in-the-loop: Drafts first, approvals always. We’re building reliable habits, not “fire-and-forget” automation.
• NZ context: Use GST, NZBN, suburbs/cities, and your tone (plain English, friendly, no fluff).

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Exercise 1 — The “Prompt Pack” your team will actually reuse

Goal: Build a library of role-specific prompts that staff can copy/paste and tweak in under 60 seconds.

Setup: Create a shared Google Doc titled “Prompt Pack — v1.0 (Team)”.

Steps:

1. Define 5 frequent tasks per role (e.g., draft reply to quote request, summarise client call, turn bullet notes into SOP step list).
2. For each task, create a prompt scaffold with:
   • Context: one sentence about your business (industry, service area, tone).
   • Inputs block: paste email/thread/notes here.
   • Output format: bullets vs paragraph, length, include/exclude GST notes, signature style.
3. Add a “What to check before sending” checklist (names, dates, amounts, attachments).

Deliverable: One Doc that becomes the team’s daily launchpad.

Why it sticks: People don’t need to remember “how to prompt”; they reuse the scaffold and fill in the blanks. This is the foundation of sustainable chatgpt training nz.

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Exercise 2 — Email triage & reply drafting (the inbox sanity saver)

Goal: Reduce response time and standardise tone without new software.

Setup: Use Gmail labels: New Lead, Quote, Support, Supplier, Accounts.

Steps:

1. Pick 10 real emails from last week.
2. Paste each email into your “Triage + Draft” prompt:
   • “Classify as: New Lead / Quote / Support / Supplier / Accounts. Explain why in one line.”
   • “Draft a reply in Kiwi tone (friendly and clear). Keep to 120–150 words. Add a single, specific next step.”
3. Apply the reply checklist (names, dates, attachments, privacy sensitivity).
4. Save strong drafts into a “Reply Snippets” Doc for reuse.

Metrics to track: First-response time, % replies sent same day, and common wording consistency.

Why it sticks: Staff experience immediate relief and adopt the labels + scaffolds by habit.

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Exercise 3 — Meeting summarisation that leads to action (S/D/A)

Goal: Turn meetings into outcomes with a Summary/Decisions/Actions (S/D/A) template.

Setup: Create a Google Doc template with three sections: Summary (5 sentences), Decisions (bullets), Actions (owner, due date).

Steps:

1. Choose a recent internal or client meeting. Paste raw notes/transcript.
2. Use the S/D/A prompt:
   • “Write a 5-sentence summary in plain English.”
   • “List decisions with who decided and any constraints.”
   • “List actions in a table with: Owner, Due date (NZDT), Status (Not started/In progress/Blocked/Done).”
3. Sanity-check accuracy, assign owners, and paste the Actions table into a shared Google Sheet called “This Week”.

Upgrade: Add a weekly “Friday wrap” prompt that compiles the Sheet into a short email for the team.

Why it sticks: People love leaving a meeting knowing what’s next. The S/D/A becomes a company ritual.

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Exercise 4 — SOP drafting from tribal knowledge (10/30 rule)

Goal: Convert “how we do things” into standard operating procedures staff can actually follow.

Setup: Create “SOP — [Process] — v1.0” template with sections: Purpose, Pre-checks, Steps (10 bullets), Escalations, Examples.

Steps:

1. Interview the process owner for 10 minutes.
2. Paste notes into the SOP prompt:
   • “Draft a concise SOP with no more than 10 bullets in Steps.”
   • “Include pre-checks and 3 common edge cases with what to do.”
   • “Write in second person (‘You…’) and keep each step to 1 line.”
3. Review, run the process once following the SOP, and refine.
4. Save to a shared SOPs folder and set a 30-day review reminder (v1.1).

Why it sticks: The 10-bullet cap and 30-day iteration prevent bloated documents no one uses.

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Exercise 5 — FAQ canon: one source of truth for customer answers

Goal: Make consistent, AIO-friendly answers for recurring customer questions.

Setup: Create a Google Doc “Customer FAQs (Public-Facing)”.

Steps:

1. Export 20 common questions from email/support.
2. Use the FAQ prompt:
   • “Answer in 2–4 sentences, plain English, NZ context (GST, suburbs/cities).”
   • “State the answer first, then a caveat if needed. Avoid jargon.”
3. Tag each FAQ by stage (Pre-sale, Onboarding, Billing, Support).
4. Publish highlights on your website and store the full set for staff reuse.

Why it sticks: Staff copy canonical answers, customers hear consistent explanations, and you build search-friendly content as a by-product.

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Exercise 6 — Quote & proposal first drafts (service businesses + trades)

Goal: Produce high-quality first drafts in minutes, not hours.

Setup: Create a Google Doc template with these blocks: Scope, Inclusions, Exclusions, Timeline, Pricing (incl. GST), Next steps, Terms.

Steps:

1. Gather inputs: enquiry email, site notes/photos, and any price ranges.
2. Use the Proposal prompt:
   • “Draft a one-page proposal using the template blocks, NZ spelling, and ranges where needed.”
   • “Include assumptions (‘If exterior wall requires special drilling, we’ll confirm the cost before proceeding’).”
3. Review and adjust figures; add before/after photos if relevant.
4. Save final draft as PDF and the text back into your Snippets Doc.

Why it sticks: The team sees immediate time savings and a consistent voice—huge for busy weeks.

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Exercise 7 — Sheet clean-up & enrichment (ops and sales love this)

Goal: Clean messy spreadsheets and enrich rows with quick, human-checked data.

Setup: A Google Sheet of leads/clients with columns: Name, Email, Phone, Company, Suburb, Notes, Status.

Steps:

1. Copy 30 rows into your prompt (or do batches of 50).
2. Use the Enrichment prompt:
   • “Normalise names (Title Case), validate emails (pattern only), standardise NZ phone formatting, and extract suburb if present.”
   • “Add a ‘Summary’ (1 sentence) and ‘Priority’ (High/Med/Low) based on the Notes.”
3. Paste results back into the Sheet and spot-check 10 rows.
4. Create filters: Priority = High, Status = Needs Call. Call the top 10 today.

Why it sticks: Sales/ops see cleaner data instantly and better prioritisation without new tools.

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Exercise 8 — Calendar-to-agenda & follow-up (reduce meeting churn)

Goal: Make every meeting start and end on rails.

Setup: Create Agenda and Follow-Up templates in a Doc.

Steps:

1. For upcoming meetings, paste calendar invite details into the Agenda prompt:
   • “Draft a tight agenda with outcomes, timeboxes, and prep checklist.”
2. Post-meeting, paste rough notes into the Follow-Up prompt:
   • “Send a 120–150 word recap with decisions, 3 actions (owners, due dates), and the next meeting time.”
3. Save the best versions as Snippets for recurring use.

Why it sticks: Managers adopt it because it saves time and keeps momentum without extra software.

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Exercise 9 — Redaction & guardrails (make safety muscle memory)

Goal: Train staff to spot and strip sensitive info before sharing with AI or third parties.

Setup: Create a one-page Guardrails sheet: what counts as sensitive (IDs, bank details, health info), when to redact, how to escalate.

Steps:

1. Paste three “tricky” emails into your Redaction prompt:
   • “Mask emails, phone numbers, and addresses with placeholders. Keep meaning intact.”
2. Have staff redact manually once, then compare with AI output to spot misses.
3. Create a “PII Panic Button” SOP: what to do if sensitive info slips into drafts/logs.

Why it sticks: People practice safe handling on real messages and know what “good” looks like.

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Exercise 10 — The “Triage → Draft → Approve” pipeline (your operating model)

Goal: Standardise the flow from raw input to human-approved output across email, docs, and sheets.

Setup: Visual diagram (one page) with three swimlanes: Triage, Draft, Approve & Send.

Steps:

1. Pick one workflow (e.g., invoice reminder, quote reply, onboarding email).
2. Define what happens at each stage and who owns the approval.
3. Add confidence thresholds (if low confidence or missing data → escalate).
4. Stick the diagram in your shared folder and refer to it across all exercises.

Why it sticks: You unify how the team works with AI—less “magic”, more predictable operations.

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Turning exercises into habits (cadence + ownership)

• Weekly 30-minute “Prompt Pack” update: add 1–2 new prompts, retire bad ones.
• SOP versioning: v1.0 today, v1.1 in 30 days after real-world use.
• Champion per team: one person keeps templates tight and gathers feedback.
• Measure a few numbers: response time, meeting action completion rate, proposal turnaround, and error rate. Share wins.

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What a 2-week rollout looks like (sample plan)

Week 1

• Mon: Exercise 1 (Prompt Pack), Exercise 2 (Email triage)
• Wed: Exercise 3 (S/D/A meetings), Exercise 4 (SOP 10/30)
• Fri: Exercise 5 (FAQ canon), publish first 5 FAQs internally

Week 2

• Mon: Exercise 6 (Proposals), Exercise 7 (Sheet clean-up)
• Wed: Exercise 8 (Agenda/Follow-Up), Exercise 9 (Redaction)
• Fri: Exercise 10 (Triage→Draft→Approve), set metrics + owners

By the end of Week 2, your team has: a reusable Prompt Pack, 1–2 SOPs, a meeting rhythm, a reply snippets library, cleaner sheets, safer habits, and a standard operating model for approvals.

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NZ-specific tips that make a difference

• Tone: Keep it Kiwi—friendly, practical, no hard sell.
• Local context: Mention GST, NZBN, Auckland/Wellington/Christchurch or your actual service areas.
• Privacy basics: Don’t paste sensitive info into prompts. Redact and keep mappings separate.
• Accessibility: Use plain English, short paragraphs, and bullets so both humans and machines can parse your pages/emails.

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Common pitfalls (and quick fixes)

• Too much theory: If there’s no saved Doc/Sheet at the end, it won’t stick. Always save an asset.
• One champion doing everything: Rotate ownership so each team feels invested.
• Prompt sprawl: Archive old prompts monthly. Keep the Pack lean and high-quality.
• Skipping approvals: Keep humans in the loop for money/legal/sensitive messages. Automate drafts, not decisions.

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Ready to make it real?

Run two or three of these modules this week. You’ll see immediate wins—faster replies, clearer meetings, better quotes—and the team will feel the benefit of ai training nz done right.

If you want help facilitating or embedding the outputs into your stack (Gmail, Google Docs/Sheets, Calendar, Xero), I can do this with your team so it sticks:

• Plan & facilitate: AI Consulting
• Build & automate: AI Development

Small, repeatable exercises beat big “innovation days.” Start with prompts your people will reuse, keep approvals simple, and save everything into shared templates. That’s chatgpt training nz that actually changes how your business runs—this quarter, not “someday.”

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