Tuesday Tips

A meeting invitation is NOT a court summons.

So you don’t have to accept it.

So, next time you get an invite, remember you have lots of alternatives to accepting. For example, you could:

• Call the owner, thank them for the invitation, and politely decline
• E-mail that you're declining
• Decline the invitation using Outlook
• Dial-in to the meeting, rather than attend face-to-face (yes, this isn’t as good. But it’s often miles quicker)
• If you’re only interested in a couple of agenda items, ask the owner to move them to the start of the meeting, attend just for those, and then duck out
• Send someone in your place
• Tell the owner you can’t attend, but offer to meet her one-to-one. That gives her the benefits of your wisdom, without you needing to attend the full hour – most of which you aren’t bothered about anyway
• And of course, if you do decline, you can always ask to see the Actions Arising. That way, you know what’s gone on. But didn’t have to sit through the whole hour to find out

I’m sure you can think of others.

But the key point here: there are others.

A meeting invitation is not a court summons. You don’t have to go…

…unless it comes from your boss’s boss. In which case, suck it up and go.

Action point

For any meeting you don't want to attend, use one of these techniques to stop/reduce your involvement. Make sure the technique feels ok – both to you and the owner!