Introduction
Mastering the knowledge and skills of time management is valuable for achieving goals and creating a balance in human life. It is one of the main reasons that justify my proposal to hold a group meeting on time management. Leading this group will help me train leadership qualities and complement my previous practice. Although I have not worked enough with groups, I have some experience to support me.
First, I taught a new employee one-on-one, and although personal communication is significantly different, I still needed skills in task guidance, active listening, reflecting, summarizing, and asking the right questions. Second, I assisted in facilitating customer service classes, which allowed me to get better acquainted with working in the group. Thirdly, I was involved in mediation between patients, staff, and family members, which taught me engagement, conflict resolution, and other skills. Although experience gives me the confidence to hold a high-level meeting, it also involves obtaining new knowledge.
The Group Context
I propose creating a new group and holding a meeting in the workplace context for this assignment. The acquisition of time management skills is beneficial for productivity at work, and the combination of workload with self-care, so holding such a meeting is relevant. The group will be open, only one session is planned, and participation in it is voluntary. My role is the group leader, who establishes the purpose, norms, and rules, clarifies and argues all aspects, regulates interactions in the group, and performs other necessary actions (Jacobs et al., 2016). This context will be practical for the purpose of the assignment and for gaining experience.
The Setting
It is crucial for the meeting’s leader to choose the setting, which will contribute to a better discussion in the group. The proposed session will require a spacious and convenient conference room with equipment for watching a video. Seating arrangements also have a significant impact on participants and their involvement (Forsyth, 2019). For this reason, the preferred option will be a room with a round table, or the opportunity to create similar conditions, which will establish the equality of participants. The meeting time is 1:00 p.m., and its duration is 2.5 hours. I expect 20 participants, represented by my colleagues – employed administrative staff of various ages, gender, and ethnicity. I will use email and calendar invitations with a short announcement of the event to attract participants.
Meeting Goal and Norms
Modern people are constantly in a hurry and report a lack of time – these conditions can have negative consequences for health and work. The meeting’s purpose is a discussion of rationally time allocation to fulfill work duties effectively and simultaneously take care of other areas of life – communication with family, health, and similar things. As an ice-breaker activity, I will ask participants to draw a pig. It is an entertaining test for understanding the personality depending on the features of the image, for example, pig location on paper or the tail appearance.
Group meetings require some norms to be practical and valuable. According to Jacobs et al. (2016), the rules usually concern attendance, reasonable cooperation, respect for interlocutors, smoking or food during a meeting, confidentiality, attacks on speakers, and putting them on the spot. The three latter rules mainly apply to therapeutic, counseling, or support groups. Jacobs et al. (2016) also note that it is worth opening rules as necessary. However, since the proposal is about a one-time discussion meeting, I think it is essential to mention mutual respect before the beginning. This rule involves not interrupting participants, listening to them, not screaming, free opinion expression for all participants, and similar expectations.
Meeting Content and Process
During the meeting on time management, several key topics will be raised: learning to say no gracefully, multi-tasking, and prioritizing. I also consider it essential to include a break so that participants are not tired and can have coffee or lunch. Discussion of the first two topics and a break will take half an hour each, and prioritizing will receive an hour after the break. The support material includes tutorial videos and handouts with crucial time management techniques and exercises.
After the studying materials on polite refusal, participants will take part in the role-playing game, where they can apply the knowledge gained. The benefits of multi-tasking are increasingly questionable, and when discussing it, participants will be divided into two groups to most convincingly present each other with arguments for and against. The exercise involves 10 minutes of preparation based on the material and 20 minutes of discussion and conclusions.
Prioritizing involves a brief discussion of the essence of the strategy, followed by several exercises. Participants will complete the Franklin pyramid and the Eisenhower matrix, and get acquainted with the ABC method. Another example of the exercise is to fill a table with seven columns corresponding to the weekdays and 24 rows. Outlining all their activities in the table and highlighting free cells, participants will be able to relieve the fear of lack of time and devote more effort to taking care of themselves.
Conclusion
My proposal is to hold a group meeting on time management for my colleagues – administrative staff at the workplace. Time management skills can provide significant career and personal benefits. The group will be assembled only once for this assignment, and my role is the group leader. It is crucial to choose a favorable setting and establish norms and expectations of behavior during the meeting, primarily focusing on mutual respect. The session will include a discussion of three topics of time management and a break. To conduct the meeting, I will need video viewing equipment and handouts.
References
Forsyth, D. R. (2019). Group dynamics (7th ed.). Cengage.
Jacobs, E. E., Schimmel, C. J., Masson, R. L., & Harvill, R. L. (2016). Group counseling: Strategies and skills (8th ed.). Cengage.