The 1-Workshop
Workweek Guide

Purpose & Scope

This guide describes the 1-Workshop Workweek: a team operating model built around one weekly workshop, three shared documents, and async-first workflows. It is intended for team leads, managers, and anyone responsible for how a team coordinates its work.

The guide is free to read, use, and share. It covers the full framework: the problem it solves, the core method, the deliverables, and how to get started. Think of it as a foundation — a starting point you can adapt to your team's context.

The Problem

The average knowledge worker spends 15 to 25 hours per week in meetings. That is 50 to 60 percent of the workweek. Most of these meetings are status updates, standups, sprint reviews, and ad-hoc syncs — coordination work that could be done asynchronously, without scheduling a call.

The cost is not just time. Fragmented days destroy deep work. Reactive meeting culture erodes autonomy. And the information discussed in meetings rarely gets written down, which means the same conversations happen again and again.

The problem is not the people. It is the operating model. Teams default to meetings because they have no structured alternative.

What Is the 1-Workshop Workweek?

The 1-Workshop Workweek is a team operating model based on three ideas:

• One 90-minute weekly workshop replaces most recurring meetings.
• Async-first workflows handle day-to-day coordination.
• Three shared documents keep the team aligned without synchronous calls.

The result is a team that meets once a week with intention, works autonomously the rest of the time, and makes decisions without needing to schedule a call. Teams that implement the model consistently report 50 to 70 percent fewer meetings within eight weeks.

The model does not require new tools. It requires new habits and shared agreements — and a single weekly ritual that makes everything else possible.

The DEAL Method

The DEAL Method is the implementation framework for the 1-Workshop Workweek. It runs in four phases. The phases are cyclical: teams revisit them quarterly as their context evolves.

The DEAL Method is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing practice. Teams that maintain the discipline of Define–Eliminate–Automate–Liberate compound their gains over time. One percent daily improvement, sustained over a year, is a 37x improvement.

Team Agreements

Team Agreements are the foundation of the model. They answer one question: how do we work together?

Team Agreements are co-created by the team, not handed down from management. They are written, visible, and reviewed quarterly. They replace the unspoken norms that lead to misalignment and frustration.

Core sections

• Communication — which channels we use, expected response times, async-first defaults, what warrants a meeting versus a message.
• Meetings — when we meet, how we run the weekly workshop, rules for ad-hoc calls, no-meeting time blocks.
• Decision-making — a three-type framework: Type 1 (reversible, decide async), Type 2 (consequential, discuss in workshop), Type 3 (strategic, escalate).
• Working hours — focus blocks, availability expectations, how we handle time off and handovers.
• Feedback & conflict — how we give feedback, how we handle disagreement, how we raise issues.

A good set of Team Agreements fits on two pages. If it takes longer to read than to write, it will not be used.

Team Playbook

The Team Playbook is the team's operating manual. It answers: how do we do what we do?

Most teams carry their operational knowledge in people's heads. When someone leaves, knowledge walks out the door. When someone joins, onboarding takes weeks of synchronous calls. The Team Playbook fixes this.

Core sections

• Team overview — mission, members, key stakeholders, metrics we track.
• Core processes — onboarding, sprint planning, deployment, incident response, and any other repeatable workflow.
• Tools & access — what we use, where to find credentials, how to request access.
• Knowledge base — FAQ, glossary, decision log, architecture decisions.
• Templates — recurring documents the team uses regularly.

The Team Playbook is a living document. It is updated as processes change. The test of a good playbook: a new team member should be able to get up to speed in one day without scheduling a single onboarding call.

Team Status Board

The Team Status Board is a visual, real-time view of what the team is working on. It answers: what is happening right now?

The Status Board replaces the daily standup. Instead of a synchronous check-in, team members post a short async update once per day. Anyone who needs context can read it. No one needs to interrupt anyone else to find out what is happening.

Structure

The board uses a simple Kanban structure: Backlog → To Do → In Progress → Blocked → Done. Each item includes an owner, priority level, current progress, any blockers, and next steps.

Weekly workflow

• Monday — set weekly priorities, move items to To Do, plan the week.
• Tuesday to Thursday — execute, post daily async updates, move items forward.
• Friday — wrap up, close completed items, input items for the weekly workshop.

The Status Board makes the weekly workshop shorter and more useful. Instead of spending time on status updates in the workshop, the team already knows what is happening and can focus on decisions and planning.

The Weekly Workshop

The weekly workshop is the one meeting that replaces all others. It runs for 90 minutes, once per week, at the same time every week.

The workshop is facilitated, not managed. The goal is clarity and alignment — not reporting. Everything that can be handled async has already been handled. The workshop is for the things that need the whole team in the same room.

Workshop structure (90 min)

• Check-in (5 min) — one word or sentence per person. Sets tone and creates presence.
• Status review (20 min) — walk the Status Board together. Surface blockers, dependencies, risks.
• Retrospective (20 min) — what worked well, what did not, one improvement to make next week.
• Planning (30 min) — set priorities for the coming week. Assign owners. Confirm alignment.
• Decisions (10 min) — anything that needs explicit team alignment. Use the decision framework from Team Agreements.
• Check-out (5 min) — each person names one commitment or open loop from the session.

A well-run weekly workshop is energizing, not draining. If it consistently runs over time or leaves the team with more questions than answers, the structure — not the people — needs to change.

Getting Started

You do not need to implement everything at once. The fastest path to results:

• Start with Define. Audit your current meetings. Add up the hours. Share the number with your team.
• Co-create your Team Agreements in a two-hour workshop. Focus on communication and decision-making first.
• Set up a simple Status Board. Ask the team to post one async update per day instead of a standup.
• Run your first weekly workshop. Keep it to 90 minutes. Use the structure above.
• Build your Team Playbook over the following weeks. Start with the processes that come up most often in questions.

Most teams see a measurable reduction in meeting hours within two to three weeks. Full implementation of the DEAL Method takes eight to twelve weeks. The investment is front-loaded — the returns are ongoing.

If you want support implementing this with your team, the 1-Workshop Workweek Training program guides teams through the full DEAL Method with facilitated workshops, templates, and coaching.

About

This guide was written by Arthur von Kriegenbergh. Arthur has been an Agile coach since 2008 and has worked with over 100 teams across engineering, product, marketing, and operations.

The 1-Workshop Workweek is the distillation of what actually works: not the theory from a book, but the patterns that show up consistently in teams that are genuinely high-performing. Teams that communicate clearly, make decisions fast, and spend their time building — not talking about building.

The 3-2-1 Workshop Weekly newsletter covers these themes every week: one workshop format, two async practices, three things worth knowing. Five thousand readers, every Friday.