Facilitation Felony

‘We worry about time, but it’s what we do with it that matters.’

That made me sit up.

Even more than the strong flat white I was drinking. And I’m told all regular coffees in Aotearoa/New Zealand have two shots.

These wise words were third in a list of six lessons that Janet Whiteside learned as a palliative care nurse. Her ‘lifetime of dealing with death’ featured in a magazine I flicked through over coffee.

It made me think about some of the things we do with time.

It’s precious, but I’ve heard that some people kill it.

Or fill it.

That’s a phrase that fills me with fear.

Filling time is the last thing any (fl)awesome facilitator wants to do.

We might watch it. Make it up. But fill it?

That’s a facilitation felony (yep, I live with a defence lawyer 😊).

Time is not usually on our side as facilitators.

When a workshop is on the cards, people come out of the woodwork with ‘urgent issues’ for the group to work on. All of a sudden, the list of issues and topics makes the workshop as murky as the Seine at the Olympics.

So, it’s not often that I find myself having to ‘fill’ time with a group. If their work is done, it’s done.

Finish early and in return for their hard work, give them the most precious of gifts. Time.

Image by: Gerd Altmann, Pixabay

Thanks for reading this far.

Stay (fl)awesome!