Write Your Team's AI Rules in an Afternoon · Lesson 7 of 7

Capstone: your signed one-page policy

20 minutes. Put it all on one page, hold the meeting, collect the signatures.

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You've done the hard thinking. This lesson turns it into the finished page and gets it signed. By the end you'll have the five things this course promised:

  • A one-page staff AI policy the team has signed
  • A list of approved tools and accounts
  • A never-paste list
  • A review rule for anything AI-made that goes out
  • A 90-day review date
Step 1: Assemble the page (8 minutes)

Open the Staff AI Policy template. Most of it is already filled in from earlier lessons. Now finish it:

  • Section 1, Why we have these rules: keep the short paragraph or put it in your own words.
  • Section 2, Approved tools and accounts: copy the approved tools, plans and admins from Part 1 of your Approved Tools and Data List. Add the switch-over date.
  • Section 3, What never goes in: copy the Never list from Part 2. Add one line: "Not sure? Ask [champion]." Leave the Fine and Ask first lists on the separate sheet, and point to it.
  • Sections 4 to 9: check they're filled in from Lessons 4 to 6.

If you'd rather start from a draft, the free Staff AI Rules Kit at https://appliedaiinsider.com/tools/staff-rules can write a starting version from a few answers. Paste in what it gives you, then check every section against your own lists. Your survey, your never-paste list and your tools come first.

Step 2: Make it fit (5 minutes)

It has to fit on one page, front only, in a readable font. If it doesn't:

  • Cut any sentence that explains *why* instead of saying *what*. The why belongs in the meeting.
  • Turn paragraphs into short lines.
  • Move the Fine and Ask first lists onto the separate sheet if they aren't already.

Then do the read-aloud test. Read the page out loud, start to finish. It should take under three minutes. Any line you stumble on, rewrite.

Step 3: A quick test with one person (5 minutes)

Before the team meeting, give the page to one person who wasn't involved in writing it. Ask them three questions:

  • "Which AI account should you use for work?"
  • "Name three things you'd never paste in."
  • "An email from me asks you to pay a new supplier today. What do you do?"

If they can answer all three from the page, you're ready. If not, fix the section that tripped them up.

Step 4: Hold the meeting and collect signatures (on the day)

Run the 15-minute meeting from Lesson 6. Everyone signs, including you. File the signed copies in the champion's folder. Post the page in its three places.

Step 5: Close the loop (2 minutes)
  • Confirm the 90-day review is on the champion's calendar.
  • Put a reminder on your own calendar for the switch-over date to check that work has moved off personal accounts.
  • Add the policy to your new-hire checklist.
Do this now

Finish the page, run the read-aloud test, and hand it to your one test reader today.

Check it worked

Tick every box:

  • [ ] The policy fits on one page and passes the read-aloud test.
  • [ ] It names approved tools, plans, accounts and admins.
  • [ ] It has a never-paste list of 12 items or fewer.
  • [ ] It has the "a person checks it before it goes out" rule.
  • [ ] It covers agents (send, pay and delete stay with a person), note-takers (customers are told), hiring tools (we can explain the score) and the call-back rule.
  • [ ] It names a champion, a backup, an effective date and a review date 90 days out.
  • [ ] Your test reader answered all three questions from the page.
  • [ ] Everyone on the team has signed it, including you.
You're done

You started with people quietly using AI on their own accounts, with nothing written down. Now you know what's in use, the work lives in accounts the business controls, everyone knows what never goes in, and nothing AI-made leaves without a person checking it. In 90 days you'll look at it again, because the tools will have changed.

Next steps, when you're ready:

  • Lock the Doors: AI Security Basics for a Small Office to tighten up sign-ins, accounts and scam defenses.
  • Save Your Best Instructions: Projects, GPTs and Skills so your approved assistant knows your business and your team shares the same good prompts.
  • Connect Your AI to Your Business Tools when you want the approved assistant to reach your email, files and apps, with the permission rules from Lesson 5.
  • The 30-Day AI Champion Bootcamp for the champion you just named.

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