In Your World, is Time a Truth or a Lie?
This post is for January 7. To understand why, I hope you will read my post from January 1. To do so, please click here: https://goo.gl/fi3gyz
If you’ve ever been to a concert, you know the feeling. Almost always, the time the concert is supposed to begin and the time it actually begins is very different. This may lead to some frustration, but rockstars get away with it...because they are rockstars!
I am not a rockstar. Sometimes, I like to act like I’m a rockstar. In fact, as a teacher, I went a few years with a class policy that required students to clap as I entered the room to begin class. It was ingenious. No matter what conversations the students were having before class began, the bell would ring and they would stop talking, choosing instead to applaud wildly as I jumped around the room like Stephen Colbert beginning his show.
...but alas, I am not actually a rockstar. Consequently, when I facilitate a training or a meeting of any sort, I start on time. When meetings and trainings fail to begin or end on time, I am a person who gets frustrated; my time is valuable! So, that is why I found it so valuable when I experienced a trainer who recently proclaimed that “Time is the first truth or lie we tell.”
To give credit where it is due, the statement was made by Lesley Rynders, a veteran instructor and manager for the Crisis Prevention Institute. She is meticulous about beginning her trainings on time. Not only do trainings begin and end on time, but break times are also adhered to, down to the second.
I have witnessed different facilitators do this in different ways. For instance, I once experienced Rick DuFour, author of Professional Learning Communities at Work, in a training environment. He had a timer counting down on the projected screen before he began and at breaks. However, to help it be a little less oppressive (for those who don’t like to be bothered with the constraints of time), DuFour had the recorded voices of kids happily shouting the number of minutes until the session was to begin. This made it fun, and most importantly, we all were in our seats on time.
When I am facilitating, I have admittedly relied on the adults in the room to decide what kind of adherence to time would characterize my trainings. Always, I take a moment to voice my desire to “begin and end on time” with my groups. If nothing else, they see that I want to begin promptly when I say I will, but I also communicate that I am a guy who will allow them to leave at the end of the day, promptly at the time we have pre-determined. However, I also have allowed some individuals to slowly wreck my intentions and expectations. All it takes is one break when I pause a little extra long to allow for a few stragglers to come back in, and then it snowballs to more people returning late on the next break. Eventually, I have more people taking “extra time” than I have people adhering to the expectation. Rynders’ statement that “time is the first truth or lie we tell” put this in new perspective for me.
In future trainings, I will undoubtedly adhere to time. I owe it to my punctual participants to do so...but the positive effects do not stop there! If I can be honest about adhering to time, participants will also be more likely to heed other expectations I may share. Furthermore, a lack of predictability can create anxiety. If I post an agenda - and I always do - I do so to allow participants to recognize when lunch will occur and what topics will be covered. Whether I am starting late (or too early) or changing the agenda on the fly without seeking the agreement of my participants, I am creating anxiety! As a result, my commitment will be to tell the truth about time, keeping anxiety low and keeping the enjoyment of my trainings high!
If you’ve ever been to a concert, you know the feeling. Almost always, the time the concert is supposed to begin and the time it actually begins is very different. This may lead to some frustration, but rockstars get away with it...because they are rockstars!
I am not a rockstar. Sometimes, I like to act like I’m a rockstar. In fact, as a teacher, I went a few years with a class policy that required students to clap as I entered the room to begin class. It was ingenious. No matter what conversations the students were having before class began, the bell would ring and they would stop talking, choosing instead to applaud wildly as I jumped around the room like Stephen Colbert beginning his show.
...but alas, I am not actually a rockstar. Consequently, when I facilitate a training or a meeting of any sort, I start on time. When meetings and trainings fail to begin or end on time, I am a person who gets frustrated; my time is valuable! So, that is why I found it so valuable when I experienced a trainer who recently proclaimed that “Time is the first truth or lie we tell.”
To give credit where it is due, the statement was made by Lesley Rynders, a veteran instructor and manager for the Crisis Prevention Institute. She is meticulous about beginning her trainings on time. Not only do trainings begin and end on time, but break times are also adhered to, down to the second.
I have witnessed different facilitators do this in different ways. For instance, I once experienced Rick DuFour, author of Professional Learning Communities at Work, in a training environment. He had a timer counting down on the projected screen before he began and at breaks. However, to help it be a little less oppressive (for those who don’t like to be bothered with the constraints of time), DuFour had the recorded voices of kids happily shouting the number of minutes until the session was to begin. This made it fun, and most importantly, we all were in our seats on time.
When I am facilitating, I have admittedly relied on the adults in the room to decide what kind of adherence to time would characterize my trainings. Always, I take a moment to voice my desire to “begin and end on time” with my groups. If nothing else, they see that I want to begin promptly when I say I will, but I also communicate that I am a guy who will allow them to leave at the end of the day, promptly at the time we have pre-determined. However, I also have allowed some individuals to slowly wreck my intentions and expectations. All it takes is one break when I pause a little extra long to allow for a few stragglers to come back in, and then it snowballs to more people returning late on the next break. Eventually, I have more people taking “extra time” than I have people adhering to the expectation. Rynders’ statement that “time is the first truth or lie we tell” put this in new perspective for me.
In future trainings, I will undoubtedly adhere to time. I owe it to my punctual participants to do so...but the positive effects do not stop there! If I can be honest about adhering to time, participants will also be more likely to heed other expectations I may share. Furthermore, a lack of predictability can create anxiety. If I post an agenda - and I always do - I do so to allow participants to recognize when lunch will occur and what topics will be covered. Whether I am starting late (or too early) or changing the agenda on the fly without seeking the agreement of my participants, I am creating anxiety! As a result, my commitment will be to tell the truth about time, keeping anxiety low and keeping the enjoyment of my trainings high!
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