Intentional Invitations – Yes, you.

How many meetings are you in a day? How many do you look forward to? How excited are you when you get a meeting invite?

Now, if a friend is having a party or a gathering and you get an invite, how does it feel? If there is a holiday approaching and you receive an invitation to join with someone’s family or be at the table with your community how does it feel?

How about if your professional organization is putting together a focused group of thought leaders to address a critical issue and, because of your previous experience or demonstrated insights, they reach out to you specifically to participate in the thought exchange – how would that feel?

As a facilitator who leads retreats, advances, meetings and gatherings multiple times a week, I see firsthand the difference between the person who is invited to participate via a blanket email to many and the one who has received personalized outreached.

When someone is invited en masse to a meeting or gathering, whether because they hold a title or are part of a larger group, mostly we see a greater apathy to the meeting. In a time-strapped world, these meetings can be perceived as fulfillment of an obligation with a feeling that the time can be better spent elsewhere. To be clear, these can even be critical strategy or governance meetings that shape the future of an organization! The challenge here isn’t the importance of the meeting. The gap is in the personalization.

If we are going to allocate our time to show up for a meeting, then we will always be more committed to showing up prepared, participating, and thoughtful if the specific reason why WE were needed was stated and clear. All the more so, if our organization is going to invest the resources in a larger convening – such as the critical moment of strategic framework authorship in a strategic planning process. Expecting participants to feel enthusiastic about giving up a weekend to participate when they are just there because of their obligation as a Board member or a leader.

If we want to see a shift in how attendees feel about participating in any meeting – and ESPECIALLY in participating in critical gatherings, then we must invest time to construct personal invitations.

Personal and intentional invitations should help your individual invitees understand the following about why THEY, specifically, have been invited.

-????????? Why am I, with my background knowledge, experience, contributions, community, and/or connections, needed for this gathering?

-????????? How will my background knowledge, experience, contributions, community, and/or connections contribute to the work at hand in this meeting?

-????????? Am being invited there as a subject matter expert who is expected to specifically focus on contributions from my area of expertise, or am I there to bring broader contribution to which my subject matter expertise will be helpful but I am not there to advocate for that area?

-????????? Am I needed for the full meeting? Are there any sections where you are including me “to be aware,” if so, are there other ways I can accomplish awareness?

-????????? Is there a certain aspect of the role I play in the organization or in my professional life where I will have a hand in the outcomes of the meeting so that my participation (specific to me) is critical? Will that play out during the gathering, or do I just need to know what happens at the end?

If you think about each person you want at a gathering and then review these questions, you will quickly realize that a one-size-fits-all invitation is not effective. Once you have successfully designed the WHY behind each person’s attendance, the next step is to carefully design the ask.

-????????? Who should be asking? Is there a personal connection or someone who is well respected who should do the asking?

-????????? What method of invitation will be most meaningful to the person you are asking? Will they respond best to a call, an email, a hand-written note?

-????????? How do you need to properly prepare the one who is inviting others so they are able to share the personal reasoning behind the ask?

While routine meetings or gatherings likely won’t have this level of care and personalization, imagine if they did. Personalization in the invite can provide greater clarity about the meeting purpose for each participant. For that routine, weekly leadership meeting – what would it feel like to know exactly why you, specifically, are needed in the discussion?

For larger organizational meetings or those more strategic in nature, a personalized ask not only increases the likelihood of getting ‘yes’ as a response, but the individual participating will feel a greater allegiance to and investment in the purpose of the gathering and to the organization who took the time to see and articulate the specific value THEY will bring.

#nonprofits #associations #community #leadership #meetings #culture