Calling a time-out – what to do when you don’t know what to do

I arrived at the client's office last week, ready to start our planned workshop on stakeholder mapping. My first conversation, as I walked in, was with the CEO: "Sorry David, I've realised I double booked myself and it's really important I go and see this guy [a high-flying celebrity], who's only available this morning before he disappears for a fortnight." Okay, we'll kick things off without you and catch you up when you are back.

So we started, and within 10 minutes the deputy CEO's phone rang: his mum had been in a car accident up in the country, the ambulance was on its way, and he had to leave immediately. Out of our five participants in a challenging enough process, we had lost the two senior members and were left with only three. Bit of a drama for a facilitator, that, especially one who had been flown interstate to do the job, with high expectations by the board that progress would be made with the executive team. I couldn't think of much to do right then except to say to the remaining three, hopefully not too plaintively, "Okay, let's take a time-out, and go over the road and get a cup of coffee."

It was a bit of a desperation move on my part, nothing else coming into my head, but it seemed to give us a small hiatus to allow things to get back on track. After we re-convened, we had some really rich discussion, and made solid progress to report back on when the CEO returned an hour later. We eventually produced a comprehensive stakeholder map which should provoke a valuable exchange with the board.

What had worked?

• The time-out gave people a chance to get over the vicarious upset of the car accident.
  
• It let us come back to a fresh start with the now-smaller team, without it feeling so much like we were just the left-overs
  
• The validity of the re-start seemed to be confirmed as a proper step to take.
  

So when something sticky and unpleasant hits the fan, and you don't know quite what to do, calling a time-out might give you the pause you need to recover, re-group, and still achieve an effective result. (And who is going to object to having a cup of coffee in a hip cafe in Brunswick Street Fitzroy?)