I posted this to shrapnel last weekend as part of my recurring late night links series, but itās worthy of inclusion here too.
Happy Friday, everyone!
(Source)
Tag: meetings
I posted this to shrapnel last weekend as part of my recurring late night links series, but itās worthy of inclusion here too.
Happy Friday, everyone!
(Source)
Prevent Forwarding, Replying or Reply-All in Outlook
About a month ago I wrote a post that detailed how to prevent attendees from forwarding your Outlook meetings to other people.
Since then Iāve expanded upon it slightly on my own computer: in addition to the option to prevent meetings from being forwarded, Iāve added similar buttons to the new email toolbar that can prevent forwarding, replying or replies to all.
Preventing people from hittingĀ āreply allā is sometimes a great tactic if youāre sending an email to particularly large group and you donāt want everybody to get caught up in any follow-up. By contrast, preventing replies (thus forcing people to use āreply allā instead) is great if you want the opposite, and for everyone to be kept in the loop.
My previous post details the process of setting all this up, but below is the code for the four macros. The first disables forwarding, the second disables replies, the third disables reply all and the final re-enables all response options. By default, nothing is disabled on new items unless you hit the relevant button to run the macro.
Enjoy!
Sub DisableForwarding()
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Forward").Enabled = False
X = MsgBox("Forwarding of this item has been disabled", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub
Sub DisableReply()
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply").Enabled = False
X = MsgBox("Replies to this item have been disabled", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub
Sub DisableReplyAll()
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply to All").Enabled = False
X = MsgBox("Reply All has been disabled for this item", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub
Sub EnableAllResponses()
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Forward").Enabled = True
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply").Enabled = True
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply to All").Enabled = True
X = MsgBox("Forwarding, Replies and Reply All have been enabled for this item", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub
Prevent Forwarding of Outlook Meetings
The ability to quickly and easily forward an Outlook meeting
to another recipient is an essential feature. Maybe you canāt make it and you
need to send a delegate. Maybe you identify from the invite that bringing along
a colleague whoās a subject matter expert would be beneficial. There are
probably many other scenarios.
As a meeting organizer though, itās possible that you donāt
want people to be able to forward your meetings. Perhaps the location you have
booked is of a limited size. Perhaps the meeting content is sensitive and
discussion restricted to a particular group. There are probably many other
scenarios for wanting to keep tight control over the recipient list too.
Well, good news! Iāve recently discovered this is possible,
and with just a few lines of VBA you can create meetings that have the
āforwardā button disabled. If a recipient wants to extend the invite to someone
else, they have to come back to you and ask that you do it for them.
Itās worth pointing out right at the top that this technique
only works in the Microsoft Outlook desktop client. You have to be using it,
and so do the meeting recipients. If your recipients also have their
email/calendar available to them on another client (including mobile devices
and webmail) then
they can use the other client to
forward the meeting.
Itās also worth pointing out that full credit for this goes
to user GranEYb
on Microsoftās TechNet
forums. I have merely tidied up his/her instructions, and turned them into
a quick screencast. The instructions are for Outlook 2013. I know the code also
works in Outlook 2010. I havenāt tested it with other versions. YMMV.
Screencast
Instructions
First, enable developer tools in Outlook:
- Open Outlook 2013
- Click File
-> Options -> Customize Ribbon - In the right-hand pane, place a checkmark next
to the Developer group and click OK
Open Visual Basic for Applications and write the code:
- Navigate to the Developer tab on the ribbon, and
select Visual Basic - In the Visual Basic for Applications window,
click Insert -> Module - Copy the code from below, and choose File -> Save, or click the Save
icon - Close the Visual Basic for Applications window
The code:
Sub DisableForwarding()
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Forward").Enabled = False
MsgBox "Forwarding of this item has been disabled"
End Sub
Sub EnableForwarding()
ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Forward").Enabled = True
MsgBox "Forwarding of this item has been enabled"
End Sub
Create the
buttons in Outlook:
- Open
Outlook calendar - Click
New Appointment - Click
File -> Options -> Customize
Ribbon - In
the right-hand pane, select the Appointment tab and click New Group - Select
the New Group (Custom) item and click Rename - In
the Display Name box, enter Forward
Control. Click OK - In
the left-hand pane, select the Choose Commands From: dropdown and select Macros - Select
Project1.DisableForwarding and click the Add
>> button between the panes - Select
Project1.EnableForwarding and click the Add
>> button between the panes - In
the right-hand pane, select Project1.DisableFowarding and click Rename - In
the Display Name box, enter Disable
Forwarding. Click OK - In
the right-hand pane, select Project1.EnableForwarding and click Rename - In
the Display Name box, enter Enable
Forwarding. Click OK - Click
OK at the bottom of the Outlook
Options window
All done!
If you wish, you can now hide the developer tab that we enabled with the first
three steps.
To use the
tool, create a new meeting invite as you normally would, but before hitting the
send button hit the Disable Forwarding button first. Recipients of your invite
will find that the Forward button is disabled.
Meetings do
not have forwarding disabled by default, but if you need to re-enable
forwarding for any reason then the Enable Forwarding button is your friend.
Enjoy!
Meeting Pre-Work (and Why Iām Bad at It)
Last week I linked to and wrote about an article
that gave some tips on running effective meetings.
In addition to posting it here I also posted it, in advance,
to my workplaceās internal social media platform to share it with my team and
get their thoughts on meeting best practices.
My boss Matt
commented that one of his tips was to highlight any meeting pre-work that may
exist: information that participants need to bring with them to the meeting, or
documents they should review in advance, for example. Matt suggested that it
may sometimes even be worthwhile to go so far as to include these expectations
in big bold text within the invite so they jump out.
This was an interesting topic to me, because I am certainly
an occasional offender in this regard.
Basically, if you send me an email that includes a call to
action then I will notice it and deal with it appropriately. I may not take
the requested action immediately, of course, but Iāll flag the email for
follow-up when I know Iāll have time to get it done, or maybe even schedule
some time in my calendar if the situation warrants it.
A calendar invite is different, though. No matter how hard
you try and how good your writing skills are, the instruction in the body of
the invite is not the primary call to action when I receive it: instead, thatās
something thatās defined for me by Outlook (or your client of choice) which is
demanding that I choose to accept, tentatively accept or decline the invite
itself. Once Iāve done one of those things the invite is forever gone from my
inbox, and the meeting (along with whatever instruction you provided) is now on
my calendar.
Iāll get to your email on whatever schedule my workload
allows for, but my calendar by its very nature is a schedule, and it tells me when I should get to something. The
next time Iāll look at your meeting invite is probably going to be two minutes
before it starts, when Iām looking for conference line details or checking
which room itās in. By then of course itās too late.
Recently Iāve started employing a new trick to deal with
this kind of thing for meetings that I host. First I send an email to the group
explaining what needs to be done (pre-work), suggesting that we collectively
discuss to share our thoughts, and mentioning that I will set up some time to
achieve this. Then I immediately follow-up with a meeting invite, into which I
embed that first email.
I havenāt heard any comments, good or bad, but it seems to
be working.
What does everyone think, though? Am I spamming people and
over-contributing to their already burgeoning inboxes? Am I solving a problem
that people donāt actually have and unfairly assuming that everyone shares the
same lack of organizational skills that I possess?
Let me know in the comments below, or contact me!
5 Keys to Effective Project Meetings
I read the article (linked above) by Brad Egeland a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to share it here because I agree with him, and I think these are great tips. They also apply to any meeting, not just project meetings.
The article also serves as a great reminder that project management is all about people. You could be the best in the world overseeing requirement elicitation for a project, turning that into a work breakdown structure, then a network diagram, then a project plan with schedule and cost baselines… if you canāt run an effective meeting then youāre unlikely to be able to successfully execute upon your plan. These are skills that cannot be forgotten about and the importance of which should not be minimized.
Here are five key practices you can follow to ensure your meetings are effective, well attended and convey the proper information while staying on track and on time.
Sometimes the operative word in your job title isĀ āproject,ā but more frequently itāsĀ āmanager.ā
My favourite piece of advice from Brad is the first one: Send out an advance agenda. Adding an agenda to every meeting I host has changed my life. The mere act of forcing myself to think carefully about the agenda ahead of time has inherent value for me, and youād be surprised (or maybe you wouldnāt) how often giving this the right thought causes me to reevaluate in some way, maybe by adding or removing invitees, maybe by lengthening or shortening my planned meeting length, or maybe by changing the communication medium altogether and replacing the meeting with a phone call or an email. It also helps participants identify whether they really should be involved or not: maybe Iāve misunderstood someoneās role and they wonāt have anything to contribute, or maybe thereās someone on their team that the meeting should be forwarded to for the benefit of obtaining whatever additional insight that person holds. It really helps make meetings effective and minimize the need for follow-ups.
To my mind, in fact, itās so important that I would go a step further ā or more accurately, take one additional step back: define a one-sentence meeting āpurposeā up front as well, and share that in the invite too. It doesnāt have to be complicated by any means, but itās a powerful tool to use if (when) a particular meeting starts to get off track, and itās also something concrete to come back to at the end. Have we collectively achieved the defined purpose? If not, are we each clear on our individual next steps in order to move expeditiously toward that goal?
You can think of a meeting like a small project in its own right, if it helps: the meeting purpose statement is your project objective, and the agenda is the scope statement that flows from that. You could even include anĀ āout of scopeā section if you feel in advance thereās a risk of people getting off topic for one reason or another.
Why Great Ideas Always Come In the Shower (and How to Harness Them)
It’s happened to all of us–you’re in the shower and inspiration strikes. You struggle to remember when you get out. Sometimes you’re successful, other times, maybe not–but why is the shower such a prime place for inspiration? Let’s take a look, and see how you can harness that brilliance other times, too.
Never in my life have I had a good idea in a meeting.
All my good ideas come at other times. During my commute, when I’m out for a walk, and – of course – when I’m in the shower.
Why Great Ideas Always Come In the Shower (and How to Harness Them)
The Only 2 Things You Should Be Discussing in Meetings
“Of the hundreds of companies I’ve worked with over the past 30 years, I repeatedly see only five types of communication,” writes expert coach and consultant Christine Comaford in Forbes. “And only two of them drive results.”