Time Management
- PatriciaKeays
- Dec 1, 2020
- 11 min read
"Time, time, time, is not on your side", as a facilitator
Managing time is a contradiction or oxymoron. Time doesn’t lend itself to being managed. We have to manage our plans and ourselves around the time available. Time management is a constant facilitation challenge.
I once said to a friend, “I didn’t have time”. The response: “You had all there was.” Often a time management challenge is actually a design challenge. Address it by aligning time estimates to purpose and objectives and choosing methods that support achievement results.
Even with a strong design, the magical mystery of group dynamics and people coming together productively is you can never fully predict what will come or control how people use shared time. Nor should you.
You can, though, pack a full facilitation toolkit to prepare to do your best for the process, the purpose and the group.
Supports to help you manage time in a meeting or process
Different processes call for different kinds of facilitation and time management. All events benefit from a planned strategy to manage time together through a full facilitation spiral.
The tips below span from design and planning to mechanisms that create a container for time management and real-time tools and tactics, your in-the-moment toolkit.
Design for time – preparatory work that smooths the way
Time management is a design challenge more than a time challenge. Meet it with these tips.
Design and facilitate so people feel heard and recognized
Design is the backbone of a successful process. The more effectively you design it, the less tension you'll experience when you facilitate it. Here are some tips on how.
Consult with key stakeholders including participants early. Analyze and summarize inputs received and link patterns directly to design. The next section expands this theme.
Highlight how inputs shaped design and planning, in the opening. Appreciate inputs.
Invite selected participants to co-lead and thematic lead roles on the facilitation team. They speak for the group more directly than organizers and address support for diversity.
Introduce in the opening different mechanisms for people to continue to give input, have a voice and be heard. Two big advantages are:
a) Different styles: Different mechanisms respond to people’s differing styles of engagement, level of comfort and confidence in taking the floor. In groups of mixed seniority and function, this can be a must measure so younger, junior and less confident people aren’t marginalized. Most people recognize when time is running out. If people still have something to say, they need to know there are different ways to say it and be heard.
b) Calming effect: People calm down and relax when they are reassured that if time runs out, other active channels exist to bring points that matter to the wider process. This pressure release valve works well if people think only speaking in plenary counts. Pre-empt the possibility of 20 hands going up at once by introducing other mechanisms.
Consult with participants so you can focus time on their priorities
Consult with participants as part of early preparation so you know what is on the collective mind and can align the agenda and session plans to that knowledge. Keep the process on point for them.
Consultation can be a quick poll, a short survey, informal questions as part of regular team meetings, a brief phone or online interview. Two key principles build cohesion:
don’t ask for inputs if you won't use them;
be transparent with people about what you have and haven’t used and why.
Analyze for patterns and consolidate a summary to transfer to design, planning and opening briefing.
Continue to consult with participants informally and in more structured ways throughout a process spiral. The theme recurs later in this post.
Infuse agenda and plans with clarity about time as a key parameter
Time both compresses and expands in group processes. Sometimes it drags, at least for some people. Sometimes it races. A facilitation challenge is designing a process that keeps every person engaged. Time management is a key factor.
· Allocate too much time? Some get restless.
· Don’t have enough diversity and variety in how time is used? Some tune out.
· Cut off a fruitful process too soon? Many feel frustrated.
By the time you’re facilitating a 1-1 interaction with a participant or 1-40 with a group of participants, you have to have a foundation on which to build. What happens in the early stages of the facilitation spiral determines much about how you can manage time in the moment. See separate post for an introduction to the facilitation spiral. (Link).
Use your agenda as a primary time management mechanism
Use a meaningful results chain or spiral to design a strong agenda. Purpose first. Goals second. Outcomes third. Objectives fourth. Outputs fifth.
Estimate required time for coverage and engagement as carefully as you can. Reflect that same level of care in the agenda. Share enough detail that people know a 2 hour session will have different parts including a chance for them to contribute.
For professional groups or communities of practice that meet regularly, design long, extended sessions, a half-day at a time.
This design element is distilled from long-term facilitation relationships with networks meeting annually over decades.
Short sessions did not satisfactorily achieve results that satisfied all. Evaluations were consistent.
Organizers are under pressure to pack in too much. Work against it.
Component parts of longer sessions can build on what people have shared before, update on new practices, introduce new developments, invite people to problem-solve on priorities, and provide a solid wrap-up with next steps.
While this is not typically or often efficiently possible with a group meeting for the first time, the pressure to pack too much in is constant and often the same guidelines are relevant.
Back up your agenda with a strong run-of-show for detailed time support
A run-of-show or script details every step that supports an agenda or process. It is a behind-the-scenes cue sheet that directly supports smooth implementation of the agenda, by a team.
An agenda usually will not show when the technical team needs to post a quick consultation, or when the extended facilitation team needs to leave a plenary to prepare break-out rooms. The run-of-show specifies that, along with all the technical details for executive producers: lights, video, transitions, and timings for speakers.
No matter how large or small, ambitious or modest an event or process, a run-of-show details time use and specific supports. Use it!
Align time to objectives in each unique type of meeting
Let a session’s primary objective guide your time-related planning. Focus on the results. Related decisions determine the type of meeting or event, which guides selection of methods.
A briefing: Top-down or lateral? Rehashing old news or updating with something new? Brand new? Answers help you estimate time balance between presentation and Q/A.
A problem-solving workshop: Design so all engage early, build a consolidated profile and transfer forward incremental solutions. Time for questions may only need to address clarifications and tweaks because with an incremental design, the group builds collective output.
Learning session: Allocate maximal time for questions, push back, try out, practice, testing, as people learn new ways. Learning is defined as something that results in a sustained change in behaviour or practice. Focus on the change and plan time accordingly.
Regular meeting: Be ready with a timed agenda and specific outputs set for each priority topic, with “quick response” options to divert topics that surface but don't directly contribute to objectives to standing work themes or business processes.
Set the container for time
Introduce varied mechanisms for input as your tactical support for time management. Different mechanisms work differently with different groups. Experiment with them all. Mix it up.
OPEN EXCHANGE IN PLENARY. Ensures managed interaction in plenary. Time is limited for this, especially with larger groups. Let people know you’ll keep a speaker’s list and take people in order. Introduce the rest of the mechanisms as part of an array, de-emphasizing the necessity to line up for the microphones.
TAKE INPUTS NOT YET MADE TO WORKING GROUPS. Encourages people to build incrementally. Invite people to advocate for their points in break out sessions and working groups, influencing the wider process.
IN / OUT folder sets at each table. Ensures two-way communication at table level. IN means inputs to people at tables, e.g.: guidance for a break-out group, a consultation app code. OUT means feedback from the group to the facilitation team.
INDEX CARDS on tables. Provides an open channel for people to direct input to organizers.
POSTIT NOTES and CAPTURE FLIP CHARTS for people to raise points to the full group rather than only to the facilitation team. Offers an open forum in a designated space, for people who want to stimulate the full group.
CONSULTATION APP – raise questions at any time through a presentation or session, with confidence that the facilitation team will aggregate, anonymize and raise it for response. Examples used successfully in different processes include: slido, wooclap, and mentimeter. Some definite disadvantages to using these for final real-time evaluations. Be cautious. Valuable way to take the pulse of a group, establish patterns, get feedback.
INFORMAL FEEDBACK. Some people are only comfortable raising difficult issues to people they trust. Introduce the facilitation team and extend an open invitation to give feedback on any aspect of the process to any of the team members. Gives those who are uncomfortable with all the other mechanisms a way to communicate their points.
Co-create and confirm process norms related to time.
Process norms, ground rules or rules of engagement are the base of a strong facilitation container.
Include norms that explicitly relate to time management, as part of a wider inter-linked set. Different norms mutually reinforce each other.
Some norms that influence time use and time management are explicit; others are indirect. The flip-chart above shows a set of norms generated by a group. A standard set of process norms for participatory processes includes:
a) Ensure equal opportunity to contribute
Result: reduces pressure to assert, makes participation a shared responsibility, opens the field to all, as an invitation not a requirement.
b) Focus: engage with the programme
Result: review of plans brings all into the same time frame and introduces support mechanism for meetings outside the formal design.
c) Respect the time
Result: participants are in the room on time, process starts on time. People keep interventions brief, don’t stack their points, and use input mechanisms.
d) Follow time management signals
Result: participants respond to clear auditory and visual time management signals, help keep the process on track: e.g.: bell, time cards, phone, eye contact.
e) Minimize use of devices
Result: collective focus over fragmentation. People use time well, for shared purpose.
f) Show mutual respect
Result: minimum standard of mutual respect is sustained. People argue a point, not a person.
g) Follow the Chatham House Rule
Result: participants are confident to speak honestly and candidly without fear of others outside the room associating the points with them. "When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed." https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/chatham-house-rule
Related recommendations about process norms are:
As a facilitation team, develop a base set of norms based on organizational values and purpose of the event. Include norms noted or suggested by consultation inputs. Identify those as coming from participants, and add to them to consolidate an agreed set.
If time permits and the approach suits the group, in the opening invite participants to identify process norms they want applied. At least one person will raise time management. People commit more to process norms they’ve contributed to and confirmed together than to one suggested by facilitators.
Raise any norms on your base list that participants do not identify. Suggest adding them to the list. Be ready to explain why the facilitation team identifies each as important.
Make time management a team-wide and group-wide responsibility
Time management is a shared responsibility. Build capacity to share it fairly.
Brief all team members on time management expectations and their specific roles, regardless of function.
Strengthen confidence to effectively represent the extended facilitation team in support of the process.
Empower all team members to support norms confirmed with the group, including those more junior in the hierarchy. Delink time management from a formal facilitation role.
Assign a facilitation team member to each break-out group and working group, to work with the co-facilitator and lead resource person.
Provide time cards to all working group and small group facilitators, as part of a briefing package with time management tips.
Observe group dynamics and feedback feedback on time management and norms: positive recognition when things are flowing well, gentle reminders when norms are loosely ignored.
Use a range of real-time tools and tactics for time management
Planning and preparation steps help integrate time management into design. When you’re into the process, consider these tips and tools.
Use a mix of a bell, time cards, and the timer on your phone. Match the tool you use to the moment and the group.
Introduce the bell in the opening and use it to open and close sessions. After half a day, participants are typically used to hearing it: even a light ring will focus them. I use several bells, to vary the tone.
Time cards are invaluable. Prepare a set for all co-facilitators. Laminate them for re-use. Include cards with numbers of minutes left (10, 5, 3, 2, 1, 0) as well as visuals: a stop-sign, a stopwatch at zero. I use STOP in different languages, and an image of a hand palm facing the viewer. Create your own, or use the ones in the Facilitator’s toolkit in the series on shadow facilitation. (link)
Use the timer on your phone. Advantages: everyone can see you set it and hear it go off. Disadvantage: if someone is finishing a thought or point, the sound can be so disruptive they lose their place and take more time getting it back. If a point is adding value and the group is engaged, let it finish.
Photo by Marco Angelo on Unsplash
The timer on your phone is less flexible than the other tools. Set the timer sound low and use it to mark time for yourself. Use the hand bell and time cards if the timer is ignored or you choose not to interrupt a good exchange by silencing it.
Position key people on the facilitation team in different parts of the room to flag that time is running. They also help keep the speaker's list. People who want to keep talking may avoid eye contact with the co-facilitators. Human nature! Triangulate the use of time signs, from three key points in the room. Ensure tasking is clear so resource people feel supported rather than harassed.
Triangulate co-facilitation. Informally poll participants about how they’re feeling, including about time management. The consultation theme continues, as noted above. Informal as well as structured opportunities are important.
- Engage other members of the facilitation team to informally touch base with people to invite feedback and bring it to daily debriefs.
- Invite “eyes and ears” from distinct groups to be informal representatives, bringing feedback to the facilitation team. Integrate inputs into adjustments and feedback.
Be flexible about extending time. Monitor engagement and consult the group. If people are fidgeting and disengaged, bring things to a close on time. Be flexible, though. If people are fully engaged and a session is nearing an end, check in with the group. Share your perception, ask if it’s accurate, and if the group wants to extend the session by (x) minutes. Use your best judgement to interpret the responses: hands up, nods or shakes of the head. Check in with lead organizers. Make sure people know the implications of extending the time: (x) fewer minutes for (y).
If engagement remains high and time is gone, propose continuing discussion after the close. Check this with resource people first. If they are available, offer participants with high interest the opportunity to continue the engagement after the day close. Commit to securing a location if people are interested. A small number can still be of value. A facilitation goal is to support as many participants as possible getting what they need and care about.
In closing
The calmer and more relaxed you are as a facilitator, the safer participants will feel and the more likely they are to engage in a process and follow your time management guidance.
Put in place mechanisms you can trust and use them. Build the capacity of people who share distributed accountability for time management. Trust participants and the group to rise to the standards you set for it.
Explore other key insights from experience and tips on managing different aspects of effective facilitation in other posts at facilitateit.ca. The post on shadow facilitation tool-kit has time cards. (Link).
Please contact us with any specific process challenges on which you could use and value some support. (link).
We'd love to hear your tips for time management. Please contact us about a guest blog. (CONTACT US)
