I've been asked to facilitate a 30 minute time management activity in December. I want to make it interactive and Christmas themed (which I can also link to work). Audience members work in our Finance Section and number around 50.
Celia Payne
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6 Responses
Me too!
I’d be really interested in any ideas for this too – or any other novel TM exercises.
Regards
Cathy
Santa theme
I’m writing as I’m thinking so no ‘meat on the bones’ but how about an in-tray exercise that is all about Santa e.g. dealing with letters from children, toy manufacturers, interruptions from elves etc
Sue
My Perfect Christmas
Hi,
I have a suggestion for you which is good as an introductory activity and can be drawn on through the session, I have used this without a Christmas theme but your question has led me to think it is possible! (Thanks for the creative nudge!!)
Ask particpants to create their perfect christmas day, what time they would get up, time for opening presents, time for cooking dinner, time for the first bottle of bubbly, time for the afternoon nap, time for the christmas bond film etc etc etc
Then throw in some spanners, you can make them nice ones – like your best friend has just arrived and wants you to go out with them (make them a hollywood superstar so you are in a real dilemma about having to change your perfect day) or make some challenging ones like the oven has broken and you can’t cook the turkey!
Add whatever you like into the mix then discuss the learning points about bestlaid plans, urgent v’s important, doing what we like and doing what we don’t like and how people feel about the pressure of reactivity.
Hope that helps
Gem
Prioritising for Santa
This sounds like a great opportunity for some fun!
How about a variation on the “crash landed in a rainforest” activity.
Get the whole group to imagine they are Santa’s helpers. The new automated sleigh has broken down on its way (you could create more engagement by naming a notoriously rough local neighbourhood where it’s broken down) and there are all these presents which have to be dispatched NOW! Get them to list all of the priority activities that they’re going to have to do (encourage them to think widely and creatively – add in a few feeder lines if they get stuck – eg about the fact that Santa and his sleigh mustn’t be seen, etc). Once they’ve come up with a flipchart full of ideas, divide the group into smaller groups of four or five people. Tell the smaller groups that they need to prioritise these activities into A, B, C & D tasks and they’ve only got 7 minutes to do it in.
Once the time’s up, compare how the smaller groups prioritied the activities. Interesting learning points are likely to come up around them not being clear on the goals (eg, was the priority of keeping the presents safe more important than distributing them? Did any group consider keeping Santa and his working methods secret more important than distributing the presents? etc, etc)
Thanks
Many thanks for all your brilliant ideas – the creative juices are obviously working despite the grey dull weather!
time mgmt
The suggestions are fab, however, 30 minutes is a very very slim slot, especially for the group size. Would suggest negotiating a longer duration if you want interaction and time to process some learning principles!