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.