Facilitation can help tame tyrant of time

There seems to be a common theme emerging in 2009: Everyone is very, very busy.

I constantly hear individuals, community and business leaders and service providers make comments such as “I am overwhelmed … going 100 miles an hour … unable to get it all done … too tired … getting burned out.”

We are now in the midst of business slowdowns, reduced budgets and new beginnings. While it seems chaotic, managing time and preserving available workforce capacity create an opportunity to innovate our thinking and practice.

We are all victims of the tyrant of time. The power of this tyrant is multiplied by the uncertainty and anxiety created by our economy.

But time can only be a tyrant if we allow it. We can manage and control time to produce the results we desire. And with the practice of facilitation, time can be tamed and the results are clear, increasing in value as practitioners become more experienced with it.

While there are many styles of facilitation, a particular brand of facilitation has proven over many years to produce dramatic results. This style is the design and implementation of structured processes in collaboration with teams to create new solutions. The areas of consideration include organizational culture change, process improvement, reorganization, renewal of service offerings or creation of new customer service models. The same tools can be applied to individual tasks and workflow as well.

Facilitation of this type harnesses available energy in order to achieve a result in a compressed amount of time. Slow down the day-to-day urgency by allocating blocks of time that are inviolate, to discover and evaluate systems and solutions. Organizations turn to this method of solution development out of desperation. They want to make changes but do not believe they can slow things down long enough to focus on solutions.

The reality is that slowing down is the only solution to taming the tyrant of time.

Three-legged stool

Instead of thinking there is not enough time, consider switching to a balanced, three-legged stool consisting of structure, ground rules and time to achieve results. Make time a part of the solution leading the way to progress in a productive direction.

Facilitation is both an art and a science. The structure is the scientific component that defines a road map for the team and the process. This structure does not have to be complicated; it can be a set of simple steps that guide the team or individual to new opportunities.

The second requirement is a set of ground rules that govern the conduct of the players and define acceptable behavior during the process. The ground rules provide a way to hold everyone accountable for appropriate participation. Ground rules require a commitment from the team to the time, the outcome and their willingness to participate.

With these two components in place, time becomes the final requirement for completing the task. Time is no longer a tyrant but a helper as we work toward a solution. Once the time allocation has been determined, goals can be set. As the team works in good faith against deadlines, time becomes a way to gauge progress and make decisions.

Four simple steps

Once a scope or issue has been chosen for analysis, the first step is to determine where you are today. This means looking at what works, what does not work, what is missing, what is known and what is uncertain. Statistics show that 90 percent of project success is in formulation and that 55 percent to 60 percent of project formulation is getting clear on where you are today.

The next step is to determine the vision or solution. This means thinking about the best possible outcome for the effort to be expended. Envisioning the solution with the current state complete makes the vision much more realistic.

Next, creatively brainstorm all the possible ways to get there. This requires taking off all limits on resources, time and dollars. It allows many possible solutions to emerge.

The fourth step is to create an action plan. Don’t overwhelm yourself or the team with too many tasks in a timeframe that is unrealistic. Create a manageable number of tasks in a timeframe that is possible.

Add your own ground rules, gain agreement and you are ready to tame the tyrant.

We take another lesson from facilitation and realize that there is no such thing as a perfect process or solution. We need to believe that making progress is more important than being perfect. There is only learning, growth and new information as a result of action.

The simple four-step process can be repeated based upon the results of the plan. Using this simple method will produce time-saving and time-taming results for you and for your team.

There has never been a better time to adapt new, innovative ways of thinking about time management. The current crisis creates the “dangerous opportunity” to try new ways of working, disciplining our efforts and evaluating the results.

Shirley Esterly is a master facilitator who assists her clients to explore opportunities for innovation, strengthen collaboration and build sustainable practices. Her company, QuantumWest, is based in Greeley and she can be reached at sae@quantumwest.com.

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