Negotiating a Time and Date

by zoutedrop on Flickr

Have you had a videoconference collaboration fail because you couldn’t nail a time and date?

Have you ever participated in an email exchange that went like this?

Email: “Hey, when do you want to do our videoconference?”

Reply: “I can do it anytime.”

Reply: “How about Monday?”

Reply: “Sure, what time?”

Reply: “10:05-10:45 is best for me”

Reply: “Ok that works for me. ”

Later reply: “Oh what time zone are you in?”

Reply: “EST”

Reply: “Oops that’s 8:05 my time. I can’t do that time.  My kids aren’t in school by then.”

9 emails later. Now you have to start ALL OVER again! In the meantime, a week has gone by and you’re past the curriculum that you wanted to cover in this videoconference, so you decide not to do it.

How about this exchange instead?

Email: “Hey, when do you want to do our videoconference? I could do any Monday  between 10:00-12:00 EST (my time) / 8:00-10:00 MST (your time)? I’d like to do it before December 8 if possible.  Can you fit that in your schedule?

Reply: “Sure, I can do Nov. 23 at 9:00 MST / 11:00 EST for an hour.”

How many emails do YOU want to spend negotiating the time and date for your VC?

Take the initiative and suggest some dates & times!!!

0 replies on “Negotiating a Time and Date”

  1. A nice web tool to use, especially if you have multiple sites, is http://doodle.com/ . Doodle provides an easy way to poll multiple people for available dates and times. It’ll even use the local time for each participant.

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