Racing Against The Clock
A facilitator’s lament
As I sit down to reflect on some recent experiences as a facilitator, I’ll own that the following musings are as much an attempt to share learnings as to exorcise some inner demons. With that, here goes…
Yesterday we ran out of time in a workshop I was running. Yes, we got the right work done, but there was just a little bit left on the table as we barreled our way into a very rushed conclusion. I’m certain the team left without a strong sense of closure. Ugh.
Two metaphors come to mind about my culpability in that:
The first: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! (This was the second of two workshops, neither of which completed their agenda. More on that in a minute.)
Secondly, to paraphrase the words of Vizzini (from The Princess Bride): “Ha ha, you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is ‘Never get involved in a land war in Asia,’ but only slightly less well-known is this: ‘Never go up against the clock, when facilitation is on the line!’ Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Context
About that first workshop — let’s face it, sometimes you just can’t get through all the work. There was a lot of meaningful discussion and it just took what time it took. No biggie. The team leads and I regrouped afterword, pulled the final elements into place and agreed we’d unpack the results at the start of Workshop Two.
But here’s the thing: our team was one of three working through the same frameworks. The other teams weren’t going to need extra time up front, but we sure would. And I wasn’t creating the agenda. When I reviewed it, I made a huge assumption that, given we had a whole three hours, certainly we could make up the time!
Tick tock…
Workshop Two was slated for Friday, 1–4PM. Directly after lunch. End of a long week. How efficient were we really going to be?
Tick tock…
Comes meeting time and we start late. Just a few minutes waiting for stragglers. Seems like this is always the case these days. What’s up with Zoom meetings and how hard it is to start on time?
Tick tock…
Once everyone arrived, I gave due consideration to Friday-afternoon energy and the heavy generative work ahead. To ensure the people in the room were really “in the room,” I opted for a brief, fun check-in before we got to work. Half minute per person at most. Only seven people.
Tick tock…
Up next, time to review the agenda. Then (finally) our team lead unpacked the offline work we did after Workshop One.
Tick tock…
From that point on, we rolled through the work super efficiently. In fact, I was proud that we were taking even less time to generate ideas, unpack them, and prioritize choices than the time blocks in the agenda allowed for. I did some mental math and it all felt good. Surely we’d catch up. Maybe even end early?
Tick tock…
Unfortunately, my math was faulty. Sure, we were getting it done, but not nearly fast enough to make up the difference.
Better math on my part (or less wishful thinking) would have shown that we got started with the “real” work about twenty minutes late. That’s a LOT of time to catch up to — especially when you consider the normal SNAFUs that pop up during any given workshop. In our case:
- A user error on my part with Miro voting
- An unforeseen bug in Miro voting
- Clients joining the session mid-stream and needing introductions
- Extra conversation to clarify one or two topics
- An unclear process in the agenda that needed to be fabricated on the fly (OK, this one’s on me—why didn’t I attend to this before hand?)
Tick tock…
TLDR
So, here are some key takeaways as I hold myself accountable and hope others can learn from my experience:
It’s YOUR agenda!
Even if someone else creates your agenda, take the time to mentally work through it as if it was your own! Chances are you’ll make adjustments to compensate for your own style, the people in the room, and a myriad of other elements.
Build in MARGIN.
Regardless of who creates the agenda, ensure there’s enough margin for human factors. There are always going to be SNAFUs, transition needs, time-of-day considerations, etc. etc. etc. Make room for them!
Catching up is BAD strategy.
Don’t make assumptions about catching up. In a perfect world, where everything goes according to plan, maybe you can do it. But last I looked, a “perfect world” is not the world we live in.
Delays ALWAYS cost you.
Delays are like credit-card interest: they might seem small, but payback’s a bitch — even more so as they accumulate. In addition to lost time, they suck up energy and add stress.
PLAN ahead.
I could have seen it coming. Proper planning would have told me the numbers weren’t going to add up. A more thoughtful approach would have yielded better results. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the time for it.
Mia culpa.
Racing against the clock is one of the biggest challenges we face as facilitators. I’ll own that it’s also one of my personal demons. I freakin’ hate it and always feel crappy when it happens—which leads me to this last lesson:
Keep it HUMAN.
Facilitation is a human endeavor, and we humans are prone to error. That’s an important point to consider when planning, doing, and reflecting on your work. Nothing’s ever perfect, so deal with things as best you can, take the time to celebrate what went well, and learn from what didn’t quite work out. Yes, you may run out of time during meetings — I’m certain it’ll happen to me again, despite my best intentions — but if you work at your practice, it’ll happen less and less.
Funny thing about time: it’s always in short supply and it always runs out. But every day we get the chance to restart the clock and try again.
Tick tock…
