There are so many “difficult situations” that can crop up while you are facilitating, I plan to cover a number of them in this blog. To start it off here, I like to put these situations into two categories: those that you have control over, and those that you have control over.

No, that’s not a typo.

While it may seem that many of the scenarios that pop up to hinder our work as facilitators are beyond our control (e.g. the room is hot and stuffy, there aren’t enough chairs, the A/V isn’t working, everyone is tired on a Friday, and on and on and on…), the truth is, how we respond to these difficulties is what separates a good-enough facilitator from an outstanding facilitator.

Before I begin stressing you out with all of the ways you can address problems that seem out of your control, I figured I’d go easy on you and start with one that is definitely within your control, but that often trips facilitators up, myself included, namely, time. I have written about this topic before, but wanted to go even further in depth and with a slightly different frame again here, because it continues to come up in my conversations with other facilitators and presents itself as a true sore spot. I can see you smiling here, so let’s get to it.

Here are the five tips that I will cover below:

1. If you don’t have “enough” time to start with, change your outcomes/expectations.
2. Be realistic about how much can be accomplished within you timeframe, don’t try to do too much.
3. Practice, take notes, and reflect after your engagement.
4. Leave enough time for conversations and use a timer.
5. Leave more time than you think you need; a cushion is always appreciated, and feeling less rushed makes you a more relaxed facilitator.

1. If you don’t have “enough” time to start with, change your outcomes/expectations

The first thing that usually happens with regards to timing, is that the timeframe for the engagement is set, either by you or by the group asking you to facilitate. By this I mean that either you say, “I need two hours for this workshop,” or, you are told, “You have 30 minutes to run this conversation.” While you may wish to have more than 30 minutes to run the conversation, it now becomes your job to figure out what you could do in 30 minutes to successfully run it. This is within your control. If you don’t feel that the goal of the having that conversation can be reached in 30 minutes, NOW is the time to discuss that with someone who has control over it. Either you need to adjust the outcomes and expectations, or you need to adjust the time.

2. Be realistic about how much can be accomplished within you timeframe, don’t try to do too much

So that’s the second step in the time-management process. Long before you step into the room, you need to think about what is realistic given the time constraints. Time management often goes awry when facilitators try to fit too much within the time allotted. One of my least favorite pieces of feedback from participants is, “I wish we had more time,” because to me this comment doesn’t speak to the person wanting more of what I have to offer, it speaks to me trying to offer too much. If you only have 30 minutes, you really only have time to do a brief welcoming, one activity (e.g. make one decision, review one data set, introduce one new resource), and a short close-out/reflection. That’s it.

3. Practice, take notes, and reflect after your engagement

If you are lucky enough to have the full two hours that you asked for in the example above, of course, you have much more wiggle room. Particularly if it is a workshop or type of engagement you have run before, you probably now have a sense of what can be comfortably accomplished within that time frame. The key here is practice. I encourage you to take notes as you run sections of your agenda: Did this one need five more minutes? Did that one end 10 minutes earlier than you thought it would? Reflect on what helped you stay within your timeframe or what made it hard to stay within the allotted time.  

4. Leave enough time for conversations and use a timer

One thing I have really had to work on over the years related to this is leaving more time for pair/share and small group discussions, as I was often getting feedback that there was not enough time to talk. I realized that letting people talk, while a deep root of my transformational facilitation philosophy, often made me uneasy because I was worried people would run out of things to say (and get bored), or get off topic. If this is true for you, I suggest setting a timer or really marking the clock during these periods of your agenda, so that you are not tempted to cut the conversations off early, because sometimes 3 minutes of this discomfort can feel like 10 minutes (and, as I mention in my first “time” post, preparing a few extra questions for those who run out of things to say never hurts)!

Along those lines, if you take away nothing else from this post, take this away: do not be afraid to use a timer! I do it all of the time and it really, truly helps with keeping everyone on track. You can simply say, “I am setting a one-minute timer that will ring when your time is up,” on a go-around, for example. Of course, you will still have a handful of people who continue talking after the timer chimes, but it really helps participants self-monitor, and you no longer have to feel anxious about cutting anyone off!

5. Leave yourself a cushion

Lastly, if you are unsure of how much time to leave for any part of your agenda, add an extra 5-10 minutes to each piece of your outline. It is better to have leftover time at the end to work with (let people leave early, they love this!), than having to rush through or cut out pieces on the fly. I also find it helpful to think through how many people will be in attendance and do some mental math. If you are doing a pair/share where each pair will share, and you know you will have 20 people in the room, then you need to leave at least 15 minutes for the share out. Write down the exact times for each agenda item, then stick to them!

Have other ideas that work for you? Share them here. I would love to learn more tips and tricks for this most ubiquitous of “difficult facilitation situations!”