The Policy Project provides a range of workshops for employees of New Zealand government agencies who fund the Policy Project. Throughout the remainder of 2026, spaces are still available on our most popular workshops.
If you've registered for any of these courses, please accept the calendar invite to confirm your attendance. Cancellations must be received at least three days before the event.
Start Right
The Start Right workshop covers how to use the Start Right Guide, a Policy Project planning tool for designing, scoping, and commissioning your policy projects. Key topics include:
- undertaking good commissioning practice at the outset of a project
- exploring the critical factors for the success of a project during its initial stages
- practical tools that can help with designing and planning policy projects
- knowing when and how to secure the green light for implementing policy projects.
You can register for the next course with the Start Right workshop registration form.
Know your numbers
Know your numbers is a course for policy practitioners on how to commission and present research, data, and evidence. It can support policy teams working on projects to:
- understand the importance of using and presenting robust evidence to decision-makers
- identify opportunities for the use of evidence, data, and insights across the policy cycle
- understand key concepts related to the use of evidence for evidence-informed policy making.
You can register for the next course with the Know your numbers workshop registration form.
Intervention logic
An introduction to the practice of intervention logic and how it can be used to undertake effective options analysis, including risk assessment during policy development. Participants learn:
- the fundamentals of intervention logic, and how to apply it to current policy issues
- the importance of identifying underlying assumptions and risks of an intervention logic model
- to identify the risks and assumptions of a logic model for a current policy issue
- how to assess two key dimensions of risk – the likelihood an adverse event will occur, and the size of adverse impacts if it does
- how to treat and manage risk and reflect your assessment within your policy advice.
You can register for the next course with the Intervention logic workshop registration form.
What makes a good Cabinet paper
This workshop guides you on drafting papers and effectively navigating Cabinet processes when you're involved in writing a Cabinet paper. It covers:
- why good Cabinet papers matter
- Cabinet processes and the role of the Cabinet office
- characteristics of a good paper (including an exercise)
- how you get to a good Cabinet paper, along with tips and tricks to help the Cabinet process go as smoothly as possible.
You can register for the next course with the What makes a good Cabinet paper workshop registration form.
Developing A3s for policy advice
A3s are frequently used for communicating complex information. They can be instrumental in conveying information or supporting decision making. A good A3 can communicate your message instantly to a busy reader. This interactive workshop will help you with techniques to:
- plan and manage content for an A3 format
- design your A3 for readability and visual appeal
- refine and polish your A3.
You can register for the next course with the Developing A3s for policy advice workshop registration form.
Bespoke workshops
A range of workshops can be tailored to meet specific needs of policy teams. These include:
- Introduction to the Policy Skills Framework and Development Pathways Tool
- Developing advice with the Policy Quality Framework to produce better quality policy advice.
- Policy analysis fundamentals goes over the policy cycle in detail, and explains how to undertake the fundamentals of policy analysis.
- Skill-building sessions on any of the policy skill areas identified in our Policy Skills Framework.
- Policy capability reviews using the Policy Capability Framework.
To find out more about any of the above workshops, email us at [email protected] and subscribe to Policy Project newsletters for monthly updates.
Policy Action Labs
The Policy Project is piloting Policy Action Labs: small-group sessions that bring together policy analysts and advisors of all levels to discuss policy problems and learn from each other. We're looking for expressions of interest from policy professionals who would like to participate in the Policy Action Labs.
Please register your interest in attending or hosting and we'll follow up with further information about potential opportunities and next steps. These events are available to agencies who currently fund the Policy Project.