How do you prioritize agenda items when time is running out during a facilitated session?

In my experience, I set my agendas from highest priority to lowest priority. When possible, I set a time allotment for each item. It was more aspirational than a hard limit, but helped us to focus and stay on topic. Third, I identified those issues in advance which required action in the meeting rather than just information sharing.

The golden rule is one measurable, understandable and realistic goal. A goal that can be "checked off" when we meet it. If our meeting has one key goal, all elements on the agenda should be subordinated to it. To this end, it is worth considering whether our meetings are not aimed at addressing more than one goal. In this case, it is important to validate the way the meeting is designed so that only one goal is key.

My approach is to identify and prioritize the essential items on the agenda (the fewer, the better!) and distinguish them from the non-essential ones. This can be challenging because, as leaders, we often believe that every agenda item is crucial and become attached to our ideas, wanting to implement them all. Therefore, it's beneficial to visually mark the key elements that must be addressed and those that can be skipped without any significant loss.

When prioritizing topics due to time constraints, two questions should be considered: * How important is it to reach a consensus? * To what extent does majority or unanimous voting impact group cohesion or division? Based on this information, the voting process for group decisions can be structured accordingly.

Do you know the trick that, when trying to free ourselves from a trap, instead of applying more force, we need to release the pressure? The same principle applies here. The most effective way to handle a situation when we run out of time and need to reprioritize or define a plan of action is... to take a break. A brief technical break, even just 5 minutes, will be appreciated by the participants and will give us, as organizers or meeting leaders, enough time to consider how to proceed.

It depends on what the facilitated session is. Is it a board meeting or other operational meeting or is it a training session? For meetings, you can assign time limits for agenda items before the meeting (that everyone is aware of) and put the most important items closer to the start of the meeting. You can also renegotiate with the group if an item needs more time and others need to get bumped. For training sessions, I would identify before the session activities or sections that can be dropped if we're behind. This ensures that you get to the most important topics and activities.

How do you prioritize agenda items when time is running out during a facilitated session? 1. Stay calm and don't beat yourself up. These things happen particularly with an active group 2. Acknowledge it with group and state how remainder of agenda is going to change 3. If time permits include something you really want them to take away in today's session 4. Allow for self reflection and review at the end 5. Invite the to complete goals 6. Celebrate with them for doing the work, high gives! 7. State which items are to be carried forward to the next session 8. Do your evaluation at the end, What went well, what will you improve next time so you don't run out of time and plan for next session. This is how to continue to develop.