Answer the F***** email! How to protect your project timeline from unresponsive people

You know this feeling of frustration that comes from trying to work with people who never reply to your messages or provide you with the information you need from them? Especially if you have a deadline to meet...

this situation can drive the most peaceful and timid person up the wall. For many, it is the worst part of collaborative projects, such as creating events.?

After 20 years of creating events and collaborating with hundreds of artists, venue owners, audio-visual service providers, designers, and more, I've learned a few tips that allowed me to successfully execute on my timelines and receive raving feedback about how well everything was organized. ?

This article is a short summary of a video I shared on YouTube "Fullevent5678" that will be linked in the comments.

The first strategy I want to bring up is connected to a recent post I shared about finding the right time anchor in order not to be late.?

Strategy 1:?pick an earlier time anchor

The actual event is not a good time-anchor to seed in stakeholders' minds. For example, if you say “Our event starts on 7th of June, can you please send me your documents in time for that?” you are setting yourself up for failure.

Rather, find creative ways to move the time-anchor to something much earlier: "I’m making a big promotion campaign for our event on March 5th, and I would like to have you as part of that promotion. I need your documents by February 20th to make this deadline”

Strategy 2: From cradle to grave of the event, ask for all the info you need upfront.

Most external partners are not lazy or intentionally disrespectful of your timelines, it’s just that your frequent requests and interruptions are difficult to deal with. Organize yourself to minimize the number of interruptions.

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• Email1: “I need a promotion photo for our website”
• Email2: “I need a scan of your passport for purchasing flights”
• Email3: “What are your dietary requirements?”?
• …

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• Ver 1: To save you time, here is the info we need from you for this event: promo pictures, a scan of your passport, dietary requirements …
• Ver 2: Let’s schedule a meeting to go over all the different requirements and check them all off together.

Strategy 3: Do the work for them

Especially if your deadline is looming and you need info fast, do the work yourself and just ask for confirmation.

? “I’m still waiting for a profile picture and a short bio”,

? “I’d love a profile picture and bio from you, but to save you time, I took the liberty of selecting a picture and creating a bio for you, let me know if you prefer to send me something or if I can go ahead with what I have??

Strategy 4:?Become a non-violent communication expert

After the third non-reply, you are probably going to feel some "negative" emotions to say it in a polite way. There is a big desire and tendency to slip in something that proposes:

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1. “if you don’t do this, there will be future consequences”
2. “I came to you because you are supposed to be a professional”
3. “Please get your S*** together”?
4. “It seems like my business is not important to you”.?

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Instead, you want to find a way to keep the humanity of the other person in mind and offer more support to get the job done. Support can come from offering to do as much of the work as possible, to offer your time, to offer alternative solutions etc.

Strategy 5 - Become the person people reply to => the long-term game

Humans are fundamentally status-driven. If you manage to become a person everybody wants to work with and please, well, you'll get replies much faster.

The dilemma is that you first need to prove yourself to build that reputation, and often, you need people's help to prove yourself. You are caught in a Catch-22 dilemma.

The way out of it is unfortunately not easy because it starts with you injecting much more energy into the system to create positive momentum... and since you probably are already working really hard, this is not what you want to hear... I know, I've been there myself as an organizer, and I'm there again today as a startup founder. Yeah... people are not fast to reply to my DM's at the moment ??. But that will change ??

In the video I also talk about communication strategies that help as your long-term strategy so that you can build your brand and status to become a person people answer to (link in comments).

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?? Comment below: What’s your biggest challenge with getting people to follow through?

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