I’m not a good liar. I don’t enjoy it, although I seem to be good at it when the need has arisen. Games like Werewolf frankly make me sick to my stomach and I play up how much I don’t want to lie as a mechanic for when I do have to lie in those games. However, in two areas of my life, I lie my ass off: facilitation and program management. But I only lie about one thing in both of these contexts: time.

Most people need to feel a sense of urgency in order to get anything done, and also a sense of spaciousness to really be thoughtful about outcomes. Both of these are necessary to facilitate a good conversation, and both are necessary to help guide a project well. It’s a balance navigated with nuance, intuition, and experience.