AI tools give generic answers about work they have never been told about. The knowledge that would make them accurate (how decisions are made, which exceptions matter, what the words mean here) lives in people’s heads and in documents nobody has organised for a machine to read. A Context 360 Workshop is the structured way to write that knowledge down, in the words of the people who hold it, for one problem area at a time.
The workshop is Kendall’s context curation method, delivered by NKD Agility as a package of three context sprints with analysis between them. It comes after leadership alignment and team AI literacy. Kendall reports that sprints run before literacy tend to produce descriptions in tool terms rather than problem terms, and that the sprints suffer for it.
What a context sprint is
A context sprint is not brainstorming and not documentation. It is a team explaining how things actually work, in their own words, using Kendall’s Context Block forms. Each sprint covers one problem area and runs as three working sessions of around 90 minutes:
- Roles and the problem. Who is involved, what each role owns and decides, and the problem stated as the people who feel it would state it.
- Process and rules. How the work runs today, the policies and constraints that govern it, the exceptions that matter, and the measures that say whether it went well.
- Tools and sources. The systems, documents and data the work depends on, and which of them can be trusted as sources.
Between sessions NKD Agility does the analysis: transcribing and cleaning the material, clustering the problems, identifying where accounts of the same work differ, and assembling the result.
The Context 360 method
Each sprint follows the same four steps:
- Independent articulation. Each participant describes the roles, processes, rules and sources from their own point of view, using the Context Block forms. Nobody has the whole truth, so nobody is asked for it.
- Identify alignment and variation. The accounts are compared. Where they agree, the context is solid. Where they differ, an AI tool given either account would have answered confidently and inconsistently.
- Reconcile and refine. The team settles the variation, decides which account applies and under what conditions, and names the owner for each block. Two accounts are often both right on different paths; the conditions are part of the context.
- Assemble the bill of materials. The reconciled blocks are assembled into a structured AI Bill of Materials for the problem area.
What you receive
For each of the three sprints:
- An AI Bill of Materials: roles, objectives, problems, processes, rules, measures and sources, structured in a consistent format that is readable by people and by AI.
- Named context owners for each block, with a review point, so the material has someone accountable for keeping it true.
- A problem cluster analysis showing which problems recur across roles and which deserve attention first.
Across the package, a clear view of where your organisation’s knowledge is consistent and where it is not.
What it does not produce
A bill of materials is not a working assistant. Turning it into instructions and sources that an AI platform can use is a separate, taught step. In Kendall’s experience, organisations that received context material without that step found it hard to act on. The AI Assistant Training exists for exactly this reason, and we recommend taking it before the sprints so the team knows what the material is for.
The workshop also does not decide whether AI is the right intervention for the problem area. That remains your decision, made on the evidence the sprints produce.
Who should participate
The people who run the work in the chosen problem area, across functions:
- Business and operations leads who own the outcomes and know where the friction is
- The people doing the work who know the exceptions and the unwritten rules
- Compliance or risk where policy and regulation shape the process
- Technical leads who know the systems and the data
Six to twelve people per sprint is the range Kendall works to. Cross-functional participation is what makes the variation visible.
Format
Three context sprints, each of three sessions of around 90 minutes, with analysis between sessions. Nine sessions in all, typically spread over six to eight weeks, and each participant is expected at all three sessions of their sprint. Delivered online or in person. Additional sprints beyond the three in the package are scoped separately.
How Context 360 fits into the Kendall path
Kendall’s AI Acceleration Path has six steps. This workshop is the context curation step, taken after leadership alignment, team literacy and assistant training, and before curator certification:
- Executive AI Alignment: leaders agree purpose, boundaries and priorities
- AI Literacy & Foundations: a shared language and role context across the workforce
- AI Assistant Training: how to turn context into an assistant
- Context 360 (this workshop)
- AI Context Curator Training: internal people who can run sprints and maintain context
- Kendall Framework licence: ongoing access to the methods, prompts and templates, agreed separately with The Kendall Project
Kendall Framework, Context Block, AI Bill of Materials and Context 360 Sprints are marks of The Kendall Project. NKD Agility is an official Kendall Partner.
Getting started
Bring the problem areas your leadership has prioritised and the names of the people who touch them. If those priorities do not exist yet, Executive AI Alignment is where they come from.
Next steps:
- Name the problem areas you want the sprints to cover
- Identify participants across the functions each area touches
- Agree the schedule, online or in person, with a fixed price agreed before work starts