Calendar Invites

Calendar invites generally work.

They even usually have timezones in them.

When I receive a chatty email with appointment information, I find it annoying.

Doubly so when it is machine-generated.

Triply so when it doesn’t have a timezone.

Rather than a single click to populate my calendar I have to spend time and effort to figure it out.

And I might make a mistake, especially if I have to do a time zone conversion.

It’s easier for me to reply canceling the meeting than it is to figure out or if is a group event or presentation simply not attend.

Doubly so if you are someone that was either looking for free help or trying to sell me something.

Three emails where this was enough to shift me from a “yes” to a “no” in the past 15 minutes on the day I began this writing this.

The following day a more serious version of this arose. For unrelated comically complex reasons a very, very, very large business deal was tottering on the brink of failure. The fundamentals were strong, but trust had been badly eroded. A video conference meeting to make a last-ditch attempt to salvage massive amounts of value was called. A key influencer (in the pre-social media sense of the word)was sent the information in a chatty email that he didn’t see until he had otherwise learned of the meeting. When he first learned of the meeting he checked had checked his calendar and hadn’t seen an invite. He said he hadn’t been invited. It was the last straw and I think that deal is unsalvageable. I hope they can restore trust and make it work, but I doubt. This was the proverbial last straw with no Rumplestiltskin to spin in into gold.

By including an actual calendar invite, you can do your part to contribute to #suckagereduction.

And you might even better advance your goals.