Time Management Course Modules

I've used this activity twice: once as a leadership exercise and once for teambuilding (requiring only a slight change in emphasis on the debrief).

Students want to get straight onto the bridge-building phase rather than spend time on planning their bridge. However, when debriefed, they comment that they understand the importance of planning, and recognise that it's something they perhaps need to do better in their day jobs. This often comes from the team who don't succeed with the task - they acknowledge that better planning (and also leadership) could have helped.

Using it as a leadership activity, you can focus in the debrief on the role of the leader, on leadership styles/approaches, and what it might have felt like had they not had a leader. For teambuilding, you can still draw out issues about leadership (because someone in the group might have evolved as a natural leader, without having been appointed, and this is something you might want to comment on) as well as focusing on the positives of teamworking - so if you are running this activity with a team who are not working well together, you could praise them (without patronising) on how well they worked together to build their bridge.

It can be adapted easily with or without appointing a leader, or observers. I ran it with much shorter time-frames than recommended - only 10 minutes for planning and 20 minutes to build the bridge, but it still worked - it just got participants working harder and faster. There's a real energy in the room as teams strived to build a better bridge than their competitors! (You can always make the point of course, that they were asked to build a strong bridge, not to beat their competitors, but inevitably the element of competition will appear!).

Leave the bridges on show for the remainder of the training course/week - they're a talking point. I even had one team nominating someone to "body pop" underneath the bridge to music from their iPod - real flair, creativity, leadership and teamworking coming out.

I used this exercise very successfully when training a group of new managers on communication styles and teamwork. The exercise was very simple to run and needed very few props - and those which it did need were inexpensive and readily available - perfect!. The groups had a lot of fun and it was really interesting to notice the creative thought process - I guess the exercise could also be used for problem solving situations. We used an observer for each group who was able to give great feedback on the group dynamics and interactions - picking up on key words and phrases used which were useful - and of course, those which were not so useful. The exercise demonstrated the key learning that I wanted to draw out - it was quick - and the group had a load of fun doing it. Can't get better than that really.

I was delivering a course on delegation and needed to emphasise the point of poor delegation to the group that was in the training. This activity is excellent to do this.

Sink or Swim is based around an imaginary organisation called Bob’s boats, where delegates are given A4 paper with little clear instruction and asked to build boats.

The poor instructions and the role play that is used to demonstrate a lack of enthusiasm for their efforts is a great way to demonstrate how delegation should not be done.

Everyone who did the exercise really enjoyed it, and it really made the delegates think about how delegation could be improved.

It is always popular with delegates and shows brilliantly how poor delegation can lead to problems including frustration, confusion and most importantly not getting the job done that was wanted. It demonstrates the important learning points whilst being great fun – a brilliant mix. We have also used this for train the trainer courses in terms of not training people properly.

Just a few thoughts on 'Sink or Swim'. I ran the exercise as part of a section on delegation with a group of team leaders - all of whom had expressed an interest in improving their delegation skills.

The first section requires minimal materials - handouts, a supply of plain paper - and is easy to set up. After the initial shock, the delegates threw themselves into [the exercise] with varying degrees of success and enthusiasm while I was 'out to lunch'. The review of the exercise was very effective, bringing out how not to do it and for generating thoughts on more effective means of delegation.

The next phase was an evaluation of what successful delegators do. This worked well with the review slides supplied with the exercise.

The final part (the story around the Tsunami) worked well as a reminder about setting boundaries and empowering delegatees. I found the exercise took about forty-five minutes.

At the end I also added some discussion and slides around the benefits of delegation and reasons why we don't delegate. These generated some 'lively' discussions. In future courses, I may have these discussions, before the exercise.

All in all a really good exercise for delegates to experience and think about delegation.

Thanks Trainers Library!

I've used Bob's Boats which was a successful excercise for Delegation and left many of the participants actually wanting to finish making their boats after the course had finished! It was a good excercise to get everyone involved and participating and helped them understand the importance of always making sure that the tasks delegated have been followed up.

Bob's Boats always, always gets the most amazing response. One client I visit where I used it about 3 years ago I still get comments "here's Bob's or Burton's Boats". What fantastic recall.

I have used this exercise in management development programmes and it generates some very interesting discussion, revealing a great deal about how and what managers delegate. For the statements exercise I copied the statements onto pieces of card and asked them to sort the cards into 4 piles. This makes it easier for me to 'eavesdrop' on groups and see what decisions they have already made. I give them the sheet at the end to make any notes.

I used the activity Gossip as part of a communications course. I had a group of eight so it worked out just right. I did have to give them a couple of hints to get them on the right path to start with but they succeeded in coming up with right solution. This is a great activity to put across the importance of good communication especially questioning and listening skills and not making assumptions. I will be using this activity again.

I have recently used the above exercise on two different communication skills programmes. The first programme had 12 delegates so I had 4 observers which worked really well as they got an opportunity to practise feedback skills which we had covered in the previous session. The remaining eight delegates were each given the pre prepared laminated cards and given the basis instructions. It was interesting to see that once they had read the cards they then asked me what they were supposed to do now! Calmly I repeated the basic instructions!

After a couple of minutes they all started to discuss what was on their cards and established the tasks they were required to complete. There were many issues with how they went about the task, and it was clear that although we had discussed, practised and agreed many aspects of effective communication, including things like questioning, listening and preparation, this all went out of the window in this exercise!

The best things about this exercise are the many learning points and varied situations where this can be used. The delegates all found it interesting either as a participant or as an observer. This is definitely one that will be in my tool bag for many different situations!

I facilitate multi-disciplinary teams of healthcare professionals working in cancer care. Benefits of this sort of working are that each discipline contributes to decisions about treatment options for patients. Not all teams either listen or value other members' opinions. Tried out Gossip with a large team of 16 split into 2 groups. Worked fabulously well and showed them how problems cannot be addressed properly unless everyone in the team has a voice and that they record things logically and systematically. Thank you.

This project management series was of unbelievable value, as it really got them working and participating. I believe that most participants are under the impression that they will attend a workshop/training and that they will only be listening. The SWOT analysis has so much detail that it is almost impossible to miss details of your strategic planning process. The managers all recognized that the three difference hotels were different is specific ways, but the ideas that came out of it were amazing. With the last hotel doldrum the participant needs to do a presentation - and among all the other learning points, one participant noticed that he need to work on his "presentation skills" and how to carry a message over to important people. Another great attribute is the financial details that are attached to the downloads. This provides the participant with a feeling of credibility and believability of the exercise they are busy with.

I have now run Hotel Doldrums twice as a 1 day team build exercise.

Marketing Team
This team is quite large (24 in total) and is spread throughout the country. Their opportunity to spend time together as a team is limited. Also, the team manager knew some elements of the team very well and others hardly at all having ‘inherited’ them following a company take over. A big part of this team build day was to get to know each other on a personal as well as a business basis.

I ran the exercise after going through some personality profiling. It was really powerful to see how people responded in their preferred behavioural style and perhaps even more so how their fellow team members recognised the behaviours!!

Not surprisingly there was an abundance of creativity going around, when the analytical people tried to intervene there were some ‘clashes’ although always controlled, usually ending up in peels of laughter. It did, however, demonstrate the need to listen to all team members and give everyone the chance to contribute. A good learning for the stronger personalities in the group. Time management was an issue and gave the team manager an insight as to why and how deadlines sometimes slip. She left the session with a strategy for managing this within the team more effectively in the future.p

The meetings with the Bank Manager weren’t particularly successful. I’m not sure whether this was the way I positioned this aspect of the training or not. The overall feedback was that the meetings contributed very little and took away valuable time.

A number of leaders emerged. Some based on personalities and others on expertise again demonstrating the advantages of having a good mix within the team.

The need for a 3 month plan did give focus to think about the future. The team are often required to be reactive, rapid change being a trait in our industry. Having to plan in a structured way for the future was a useful learning and demonstrated how much control you get when you are able to do this.

The final presentations were very light on financial information which was recognised as something of a problem given that they were for the bank manager!! Known your audience eh? There was much emphasis on how they would ‘pretty-up’ the respective hotels, what fun things they could offer and how they would improve the experience to encourage the return of guests. Not so much thought around what would happen if people didn’t return!! Glass half full perhaps?

The most valuable things taken from the exercise were:

Recognising and be able to utilise the strengths within the team.
The importance of planning Thinking inside the box as well as outside it!
Raising awareness of financial implications around the roles of the team members.
Working as a team.

Strategic Sales Team
I ran the exercise again 4 weeks later with a smaller team of strategic sales people. This team have huge transformation in front of them due to changes in our business so it was good to give them a subject they were totally unfamiliar with.

The team had slightly less time which proved a challenge and a learning point for me here is that a smaller team doesn’t necessarily mean less time.

There was definitely a more financial focused approach and less creativity. As with the previous group the presentations ran over time neither groups having practised. They would argue they didn’t have time….I would argue they should have made time!!! Creativity was limited in this session and it highlighted the need to involve other areas and expertise within the business for the new challenges ahead.

This team had a brand new manager who was eager to demonstrate his style. He joined in the exercise which proved really valuable and his team could see he would not ask them to do anything he wouldn’t or couldn’t do himself.

We did not include the bank manager role this time and in all honesty I don’t think the exercise lost anything as a result.

Again the need for a 3 month plan was very powerful and I would say that this was the most valuable aspect for both sessions.

All in all, this is an excellent exercise with an incredible amount of learning from it. It has been a huge success and I will/would use it again and again.

This project management series was of unbelievable value, as it really got them working and participating. I believe that most participants are under the impression that they will attend a workshop/training and that they will only be listening. The SWOT analysis has so much detail that it is almost impossible to miss details of your strategic planning process. The managers all recognized that the three difference hotels were different is specific ways, but the ideas that came out of it were amazing. With the last hotel doldrum the participant needs to do a presentation - and among all the other learning points, one participant noticed that he need to work on his "presentation skills" and how to carry a message over to important people. Another great attribute is the financial details that are attached to the downloads. This provides the participant with a feeling of credibility and believability of the exercise they are busy with.

I have now run Hotel Doldrums twice as a 1 day team build exercise.

Marketing Team
This team is quite large (24 in total) and is spread throughout the country. Their opportunity to spend time together as a team is limited. Also, the team manager knew some elements of the team very well and others hardly at all having ‘inherited’ them following a company take over. A big part of this team build day was to get to know each other on a personal as well as a business basis.

I ran the exercise after going through some personality profiling. It was really powerful to see how people responded in their preferred behavioural style and perhaps even more so how their fellow team members recognised the behaviours!!

Not surprisingly there was an abundance of creativity going around, when the analytical people tried to intervene there were some ‘clashes’ although always controlled, usually ending up in peels of laughter. It did, however, demonstrate the need to listen to all team members and give everyone the chance to contribute. A good learning for the stronger personalities in the group. Time management was an issue and gave the team manager an insight as to why and how deadlines sometimes slip. She left the session with a strategy for managing this within the team more effectively in the future.p

The meetings with the Bank Manager weren’t particularly successful. I’m not sure whether this was the way I positioned this aspect of the training or not. The overall feedback was that the meetings contributed very little and took away valuable time.

A number of leaders emerged. Some based on personalities and others on expertise again demonstrating the advantages of having a good mix within the team.

The need for a 3 month plan did give focus to think about the future. The team are often required to be reactive, rapid change being a trait in our industry. Having to plan in a structured way for the future was a useful learning and demonstrated how much control you get when you are able to do this.

The final presentations were very light on financial information which was recognised as something of a problem given that they were for the bank manager!! Known your audience eh? There was much emphasis on how they would ‘pretty-up’ the respective hotels, what fun things they could offer and how they would improve the experience to encourage the return of guests. Not so much thought around what would happen if people didn’t return!! Glass half full perhaps?

The most valuable things taken from the exercise were:

Recognising and be able to utilise the strengths within the team.
The importance of planning Thinking inside the box as well as outside it!
Raising awareness of financial implications around the roles of the team members.
Working as a team.

Strategic Sales Team
I ran the exercise again 4 weeks later with a smaller team of strategic sales people. This team have huge transformation in front of them due to changes in our business so it was good to give them a subject they were totally unfamiliar with.

The team had slightly less time which proved a challenge and a learning point for me here is that a smaller team doesn’t necessarily mean less time.

There was definitely a more financial focused approach and less creativity. As with the previous group the presentations ran over time neither groups having practised. They would argue they didn’t have time….I would argue they should have made time!!! Creativity was limited in this session and it highlighted the need to involve other areas and expertise within the business for the new challenges ahead.

This team had a brand new manager who was eager to demonstrate his style. He joined in the exercise which proved really valuable and his team could see he would not ask them to do anything he wouldn’t or couldn’t do himself.

We did not include the bank manager role this time and in all honesty I don’t think the exercise lost anything as a result.

Again the need for a 3 month plan was very powerful and I would say that this was the most valuable aspect for both sessions.

All in all, this is an excellent exercise with an incredible amount of learning from it. It has been a huge success and I will/would use it again and again.

This project management series was of unbelievable value, as it really got them working and participating. I believe that most participants are under the impression that they will attend a workshop/training and that they will only be listening. The SWOT analysis has so much detail that it is almost impossible to miss details of your strategic planning process. The managers all recognized that the three difference hotels were different is specific ways, but the ideas that came out of it were amazing. With the last hotel doldrum the participant needs to do a presentation - and among all the other learning points, one participant noticed that he need to work on his "presentation skills" and how to carry a message over to important people. Another great attribute is the financial details that are attached to the downloads. This provides the participant with a feeling of credibility and believability of the exercise they are busy with.

I have now run Hotel Doldrums twice as a 1 day team build exercise.

Marketing Team
This team is quite large (24 in total) and is spread throughout the country. Their opportunity to spend time together as a team is limited. Also, the team manager knew some elements of the team very well and others hardly at all having ‘inherited’ them following a company take over. A big part of this team build day was to get to know each other on a personal as well as a business basis.

I ran the exercise after going through some personality profiling. It was really powerful to see how people responded in their preferred behavioural style and perhaps even more so how their fellow team members recognised the behaviours!!

Not surprisingly there was an abundance of creativity going around, when the analytical people tried to intervene there were some ‘clashes’ although always controlled, usually ending up in peels of laughter. It did, however, demonstrate the need to listen to all team members and give everyone the chance to contribute. A good learning for the stronger personalities in the group. Time management was an issue and gave the team manager an insight as to why and how deadlines sometimes slip. She left the session with a strategy for managing this within the team more effectively in the future.p

The meetings with the Bank Manager weren’t particularly successful. I’m not sure whether this was the way I positioned this aspect of the training or not. The overall feedback was that the meetings contributed very little and took away valuable time.

A number of leaders emerged. Some based on personalities and others on expertise again demonstrating the advantages of having a good mix within the team.

The need for a 3 month plan did give focus to think about the future. The team are often required to be reactive, rapid change being a trait in our industry. Having to plan in a structured way for the future was a useful learning and demonstrated how much control you get when you are able to do this.

The final presentations were very light on financial information which was recognised as something of a problem given that they were for the bank manager!! Known your audience eh? There was much emphasis on how they would ‘pretty-up’ the respective hotels, what fun things they could offer and how they would improve the experience to encourage the return of guests. Not so much thought around what would happen if people didn’t return!! Glass half full perhaps?

The most valuable things taken from the exercise were:

Recognising and be able to utilise the strengths within the team.
The importance of planning Thinking inside the box as well as outside it!
Raising awareness of financial implications around the roles of the team members.
Working as a team.

Strategic Sales Team
I ran the exercise again 4 weeks later with a smaller team of strategic sales people. This team have huge transformation in front of them due to changes in our business so it was good to give them a subject they were totally unfamiliar with.

The team had slightly less time which proved a challenge and a learning point for me here is that a smaller team doesn’t necessarily mean less time.

There was definitely a more financial focused approach and less creativity. As with the previous group the presentations ran over time neither groups having practised. They would argue they didn’t have time….I would argue they should have made time!!! Creativity was limited in this session and it highlighted the need to involve other areas and expertise within the business for the new challenges ahead.

This team had a brand new manager who was eager to demonstrate his style. He joined in the exercise which proved really valuable and his team could see he would not ask them to do anything he wouldn’t or couldn’t do himself.

We did not include the bank manager role this time and in all honesty I don’t think the exercise lost anything as a result.

Again the need for a 3 month plan was very powerful and I would say that this was the most valuable aspect for both sessions.

All in all, this is an excellent exercise with an incredible amount of learning from it. It has been a huge success and I will/would use it again and again.

I used this activity as part of a Basic Time Management training session. The flipchart activity worked really well and promoted a lot of discussion between delegates. It also allowed delegates to share good practice with one another. For other 'time stealers' that cropped up in conversations, we made a note of any 'hints & tips' and I emailed these to the group following the training.

Before the training I read through the material and tailored it to the team that I was delivering to so it wasn’t as generic (although majority of the material stayed as it was). Splitting the group into three for the flipchart exercise was really affect. There were 12 people in the group, plus the line manager. The line manager circulated with me and coached to get answers out of people. It was also useful to have another pair of hands to make sure they were splitting their time properly.

To begin with the group was quite quiet but they quickly got into the session and having them come up with their ideas for controlling time stealers really helped them with personal ownership of the problem and removing the mentality that there was nothing personally that they could do. Going around and reviewing / adding to other people’s flipchart also helped them with how to challenge people or give feedback, which was something that this group was not used to doing.

The session had a positive effect on the group and has raised their own awareness of when / how they approach other people. By ensuring the line manager was involved they have the knowledge to help transfer the learning into the workplace. It worked out really well as they had their one to one’s in the week after the course and so their manager spoke to a couple of them about what we covered on the training about procrastination and they put some time aside for the difficult tasks that they didn’t want to face. It was a good course with good content material, and the key for me was having the line manager involvement to follow through in the workplace.

In defining goal setting I added in an essence exercise to get people to generate their own definitions, and a more practical demonstration of why goals are important (as otherwise I found it a bit too passive/sedentary).

However, I really liked the way the module describes aim, goal and objective and the section on accentuating the positive (though I adapted the slide examples to suit my personal style). The final section on actually implementing goal setting was good. Some delegates found it really difficult, but the framework provided by this module helped most learners grasp the stages.

All in all a good all encompassing look at why and how to set effective goals.

I used this session as part of a Basic Time Management training session. Although I didn't used the ABC matrix, the delegates found the urgent/important matrix very useful indeed and it really helped them to self-reflect about how much time they focus in each quadrant. Very useful.

This has been something I’m often asked for at the moment.

I found the ABC system was far better received than the matrix system. Some people were used to categorising the importance of their tasks, but forcing them to re-categorise some activities rather than sit on the fence, was new to most of the people I’ve work with and it did get them thinking much more critically. Virtually, everyone I’ve used this with has found the matrix system to be overkill and it nearly put one group ‘right off’.

I’ve stopped using the matrix part but focused on the ABC and blended it with Stephen Covey’s work. Personally, I’m much happier delivering that way.

I recently used this exercise within a 'Managing Your Time' workshop I ran for administrative staff and managers. I found the trainer notes extremely easy to understand and it fitted perfectly with the course aims. The delegates fed-back that they appreciated how the exercise offered different tools for prioritising tasks and that this gave them some alternative options to the normal 'to-do list'.

I have used this exercise as part of the Effective Team Meetings. After a discussion regarding the best and the worst team meetings they have ever been to I ask them to read through this exercise and then to role play it. When they have discovered how awful the meeting is they actually find it quite humorous and really get into their parts. We then have a discussion regarding why it was so bad and what they would do differently and how they would deal with the different characters.

I used The Wedding Planner exercise at the end of the session to summarise what we had learnt regarding time management, prioritisation and organisation. I split them into two groups of three and gave them half an hour to work out what they were going to do. They seemed to struggle a bit at first and get in a bit of debate how they should organise it. They suggested afterwards that they would have liked some scissors to chop the tasks up and move things round (why didn’t they ask!) After half an hour we discussed what they had come up with and both groups had done it slightly differently. They both understood though that they could delegate tasks and lump similar things together to get things done quicker. In particular they saved time by not travelling so much. Again we linked this back to their role and they thought about how they could organise their own time better.

I used the Wedding Planner as a group exercise in an Assessment Centre. I was looking for an exercise that would require the candidates to show their planning, organising, decision-making and communication skills (amongst other competencies); this exercise is ideal because it covers all those bases. It was run as per the brief and I followed it up with some additional reflective questions. I was able to get exactly what I needed for the purposes of selection and I would recommend it as an exercise in this context too. Thanks Trainers’ Library – it meant I didn’t have to come up with a whole new exercise from scratch!

We completed the Wedding Planner in a Time Management session recently, it was a fun and fantastic way to show how to priorotise. All of the delegates were female and really played up to the role, however I am sure that men would be just as receptive due to the nature of the brief.

I've used 'The Wedding Planner' and it went really well in a time management session for Team leaders. They enjoyed the opportunity to work through a scenario that wasn't work related, yet could still highlight the pitfalls that they themselves make during their working day.