Chapter 3: How do I Invite People to Become Involved?


Overview

Julie once received an invitation to a garden party at Buckingham Palace hosted by the Queen of England. Yes, that Queen of England. Julie had to sign a receipt when the invitation was delivered. The envelope was stamped front and back with "Lord Chamberlain Buckingham Palace." It was addressed in beautifully handwritten calligraphic script. The message on the card itself was embossed in gold. It began with the words "The Lord Chamberlain is commanded to invite. . . "

Talk about a special invitation. Julie still has it. The Queen, and the Lord Chamberlain, could be sure she would be there.

If we are not going to do it alone then we have to do something to invite others to join us. We know the people we want. Getting them to come becomes our focus.

We may not be confident they will come. We might fear that they won't find what we are inviting them to exciting or worthwhile. Then they might think less of us. We could worry that it will take a lot of work to persuade them. It's the times when we are not sure how to invite people in, when we are not confident that they will come, that this step deals with.

In answering the question, "How do I invite people to become involved?" we focus on six things:

  • The list of people we want to invite

  • How to invite them

  • Making it personal

  • Asking them to do something

  • Dealing with objections

  • Following up

Now you may be thinking that inviting people just takes some common sense. We might find it very simple: Give them a call, or have a chat as we pass them on the street or in the corridor, and they readily join us. Why go through all this to invite someone to join us?

But our experience is that when the stakes are high, "common sense" goes out the window. When time is tight and we are under pressure, we use the methods that are easiest for us rather than the ones most likely to tempt people to join us. How often do you send a quick e-mail to twenty people announcing a meeting and then find that only three or four people took enough notice of it to show up?

We can easily make assumptions about what people need. This might mean that we give them too much information, which ends up being off-putting, and they turn us down because they think they will not be able to cope. On the other hand, we can send something out in a rush and give too little information. Then they don't join us because they did not have enough information to know they would want to.

Our six focus areas can serve as gentle reminders to guide us in these situations.




You Don't Have to Do It Alone(c) How to Involve Others to Get Things Done
You Dont Have to Do It Alone: How to Involve Others to Get Things Done
ISBN: 157675278X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 73

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