Surprise
I’ve had the great fortune of scheduling several relatively large meetings over the last few months, and regardless of how far in advance I send a “save the date”, within seconds (it seems) someone has responded with, “Do you have an agenda yet?” I always smile, because the agenda is the last thing that comes together, but the first thing that people want to know about.
I’ve come to the conclusion that most folks just don’t like surprises. They want to know what exactly is going to be discussed, what exactly is going to be expected of them, and what exactly they need to do in preparation for that event.
I’m just the opposite! When it comes to meetings, I want to know the agenda just far enough in advance that I can prioritize the preparation based on everything else that is going on in my life at that time. I certainly want to block the date far enough in advance to allow deconfliction, but I certainly don’t want to start preparation well in advance when anything that I may need to do or contribute could be changed dramatically or eliminated completely with the strike of a pen against that agenda.
We live in an age where meeting attendance needs to be prioritized on macro understanding and then preparation (if any is needed) should be done on micro details. The macro understanding (and thus the ability to prioritize attendance) can be done months or weeks out from the desired meeting date, thus allowing people to determine fairly easily whether that date should be blocked and protected. The micro understanding however is best left till the last possible minute that allows all needed participants to get their piece of that phenomenally important agenda accomplished.
The really hard part is to make sure that those who have a desperate desire to prepare months and weeks in advance feel informed enough to start the preparation process while, at the same time, waiting to give the procrastinators the minute details just in time for them to get it done.
That information sharing dance is almost as thrilling as the meeting itself!