Some thoughts before making last minute changes to the schedule for meetings (remote work)

After I joined an ongoing project as director, it already had a tight schedule.
In the beginning, when there were changes to the schedule before our team meeting, to “save” time, I had the urge to make adjustments to our planned meeting. This was to meet earlier as previously planned so we could proceed earlier.

Shortly I came to realise that this was due to the tight schedule of the project and that it caused additional “load” for all members involved when making sudden changes.

It requires communication with all the attending members to come to an agreement whether or not the members are able to join at the alternative suggested time.

The response can be quick and there isn’t a problem, but often times that isn’t the case and there is a delay. A specially working remotely between multiple timezones, we can’t assume everyone is able to instantly respond. Each individual member has their own schedules as well, so It doesn’t mean that they have nothing else planned, because they appear to be available on their google calendar.

In addition that comes with the delay, is that the members who have responded to the alternative time, can now not make other plans until there is a confirmation. And with the majority agreeing with the suggested time, it has the tendency to create a premature forced commitment (for the person who initiated the change) to proceed with the suggested time even though not everyone has responded yet. Which causes more confusion and other feelings within the team.

So before suggesting a change to a previously agreed meeting, it is key to calculate wether or not the effort required to make the adjustments is worth it.

Often times it’s not going to make a difference in the big picture, so I suggest instead of asking others to change their schedules, I would focus on other tasks instead.

I understand, we all want to proceed quickly, but as long we are present during the meeting, It will be okay! We can do it!