Time Management Tactics Business Game

Our time management training game is one of our most popular management games that top organisations buy. It is often used to assess an individual or a group at an assessment centre. It is also ideal for use as part of development training on a course.

The following scenario is provided with the game, but you can amend it to suit your needs.

Your name is Chris Dearing, the General Manager of Toys Galore and your manager is Peter Davis.

Toys Galore are an online children’s toy retailer and you work in the head office.

Toys Galore’s previous General Manager went on long-term sick leave (due to stress) at the beginning of July and is unlikely to return to work. You are hired because you are an efficient, positive thinker who (it is hoped) will soon catch up with the work that has not been done for the last five weeks.

This situation has left a number of outstanding issues and the HR Director has asked for regular updates.

Today is Monday the 5 of August – your first day as Toys Galore’s General Manager.

Your assistant has left 16 documents in your In-tray for your attention. These appear in a variety of formats including emails, letters and notes. Some of these items may appear to describe isolated issues, while others link to one or more of the other items.

Your task is to:

1. Prioritise the items and decide which communications need an instant response:

• High Urgency/High importance
• High Urgency/High importance
• High importance/Low Urgency
• High Urgency/Low Importance
• Low urgency/low importance.

2. Decide which items can be delegated.

3. Decide which items can be put into the diary.

4. Identify problems within the business and decide what should be done.

• The exercise lasts 30 to 45 minutes, depending on participants’ abilities and the number of scenarios used (you do not have to use them all).
• While an individual or teams work on their initial tasks (scenarios), emails, WhatsApp messages, and social media messages continue to arrive. Will they interrupt their work to deal with requests, or will they ignore them? What disciplines will they set up? Will they complete the exercise within the time and show good time management?
• You can adjust the scenario type to match the areas you want to cover and the level of participants.
• You can appoint a leader for this exercise to see how they manage their team. Alternatively, see how the individual or team perform with their prioritising, planning and time management.

• Decide which scenarios to use (from those supplied or include some of yours)
• Explain the purpose of the activity and what is required. Also explain that after they have completed the activity, they will be required to present their decisions.
• Issue each team (or individual) with a copy of the 14 initial scenarios provided.
• After 10 minutes, add more scenarios at various times to see if they interrupt their work to deal with messages or will they ignore them and deal with them at a set time later? What disciplines will they set up?
• Observe them in action and make a note of any interesting behaviour, conflict or discussion.
• Listen to each presentation on their decisions. They can be informal with the groups merely stating what they did and discussing key issues, or they can be more formal with each item being discussed in depth.
• When each group has had its say, lead a general discussion of the exercise. Draw out what participants saw as the key issues they had to deal with regarding prioritising, time management and handling information. Then reveal the suggested answers and allow them time to compare with their own decisions. This usually promotes a lively discussion with some disagreement.
• Relate the issues in the exercise to those in the workplace. Summarise the key lessons using the notes in these notes.

• Trainer’s Guide
• Participants’ Briefing Sheet
• Verve Couture Ltd’s Values and Ethos plus Organisational Structure
• 25 Scenarios and Action Sheets
• Time Management Priorities Chart
• July Calendar
• Introduction Presentation
• Observers’ Instructions
• Debrief Sheet

The Trainer’s Guide provides instructions for running the Time Management Tactics business simulation and useful time management training material.

• Time management
• Conflict management and teamwork if there’s more than one participant
• The role of a manager
• Prioritising
• Analysis and organisational skills
• Decisions making 
• Delegation
• Leadership
• Customer service
• Performance management and Human Resources (HR)
• Managing meetings
• Commercial thinking.

Assessment Centre

Are you looking for an assessment centre exercise for time management? This time management exercise is ideal for an assessment centre when recruiting or promoting staff.

Schools, Colleges and Universities 

This business simulation is popular with schools, colleges and universities, preparing them for the realities of the working world, where they need to manage multiple tasks. It’s also used to help students manage their existing workload while balancing activities beyond their academics.

Training in Time Management

It is used on graduate induction courses and all types of management programmes where time management and teamwork are a focus.

• Time Management Tactics Business Game PDF
• Business Games Brochure
• Course Brochure
• Team Building Brochure

“We use the Time Management exercise for our supervisor and management courses. It soon gets them working and provides lots of evidence where they can develop in key areas like decision making, prioritising, planning, time management and leadership.”

“The Time Management exercise is another excellent exercise we bought from you. Our Assessment Centre is now more realistic and enables us to evidence skills of potential candidates and those being considered for promotion.”

• Up to 4 participants per team.
• There’s no restriction on the number of times you can use our games.
• It is possible to play Time Management Tactics in other languages if the trainer verbally translates the English instructions.
• Also available to play remotely.