Not Invited... Should you Attend a Meeting?

Rating

Not Invited... Should you Attend a Meeting?
Imagine yourself being part of a cross-functional team, working on a major project (e.g., a revamp of your company's website). The work is happening smoothly, but one day you find out that you have not been invited to weekly update meetings held to discuss the progress, tackle issues, and make changes.
You may have experienced a scenario like this yourself (or you might manage a team). How will the person involved feel? And what actions should he/she take?

• Employees in this situation will probably feel being excluded from his/her team. They may believe that their opinions and contributions are not valued. It will probably deeply and negatively affect the employee's motivation, morale and organizational commitment.
• The resulting delays in communicating vital project information are also likely to negatively impact the coordination, collaboration and succes of the team as a whole.

Raffoni (2016) recommends 4 strategies to deal with a situation of not being invited to a meeting:

1. KEEP YOUR EGO IN PLACE: Check your ego at the door. You need to introspect whether you are exaggerating the situation or not. Is your presence in the meeting critical or at least important in the first place? Too many people at a meeting is bound to increase complexities and its duration. Approach a coworker who's already a part of the ongoing meetings to find out more about the aims and objectives. Knowing the meeting agenda helps determine whether you really need to attend the meeting in person or if any teammate can share concerns or opinions on your behalf.
2. DEVELOP A PROPER JUSTIFICATION: Develop your rationale. Consider the meeting agenda and check if you firmly believe you need to be a part of it. There is a big difference in whether an employee would like to participate and an employee who should be participating in an important discussion. If you think that the latter is the case, start thinking about rational arguments to strengthen your stance. Rather than gaining an entry to the meeting simply as a team member, consider elucidating what your position, experience, role, expertise and skillset could offer.
3. OFFER YOUR ASSISTANCE: Offer to help. Once you decide on your arguments, reach out to the meeting organizer to convey your views and opinions regarding the whole situation. Instead of interrogating and blaming the person in charge for not including you in the meeting, communicating the benefits of step #2 for the team if you were included. Such statements show that you are not criticizing the way in which the team is functioning; instead, it expresses a fruitful suggestion that could be implemented.
4. REMAIN UNBIASED: Stay neutral. Remember that your conversation should not steer towards your emotions or how terrible you feel regarding this whole situation. Keep the conversation directed at how the team may profit if you could actively participate in important meetings.

If we follow these strategies and put our emotions and ego aside, it reflects our commitment to our job and responsibilities. This could help us earn the respect of our superiors and colleagues and at the same time enable us to get the opportunity to be included and be of added value in the right meetings meetings.

⇒ Do you have additional suggestions or tips on tackling the issue of what meetings to attend?
Source: Raffoni, M. (2016), ''How to Respond When You're Left Out of Important Meetings''.

		Comments by rating▼ Comments by date Rating
		Pierre AKMEL Strategy Consultant, France
	2 Not Invited to Multiple Weekly Update Meetings 👉 "Work is going smoothly, but one day you find out that you haven't been invited to the weekly update meetings held to discuss progress, resolve issues and make changes…" You will note that it is not about one specific meeting, but about several: thus the excuse of the ego to be reviewed and the analysis of the impact of the supposed meeting on the work, etc. conceal the fact of voluntary acts taken purely and simply to exclude. It would therefore be necessary to have an interview with the manager(s) for more information, because on several meetings this looks like a voluntary exclusion. The rest is basic self psychology. Non Invité à Plusieurs Réunions de Mise à Jour Hebdomadaires 👉 "Le travail se déroule sans heurts, mais un jour vous découvrez que vous n'avez pas été invité aux réunions de mise à jour hebdomadaires organisées pour discuter des progrès, résoudre des problèmes et apporter des changements…" Vous noterez qu'il ne s'agit pas d'une réunion spécifique, mais de plusieurs: donc l'excuse de l'égo à revoir et de l'analyse de l'impact de la supposée réunion sur le travail, etc. cachent le fait d'actes volontaires posés pour exclure purement et simplement. Il faudrait donc avoir un entretien avec le(s) responsable(s) pour de plus amples informations, car sur plusieurs réunions cela ressemble à une d'exclusion volontaire. Pour le reste, c'est de la psychologie de base sur soi-même.

		Doaa Saayed Professor, Lebanon
	2 Maybe a Personal Issue! Applying these strategies may be hard. When we say teamwork then there must not be any meeting without the presence of all the members. There is no reason - except a personal issue - to deal with here. In all team work there should an email list or a whatsapp group whatever... If someone didn't get any invitation then simply he was deleted from the list which could indicate the presence of a personal issue. This situation could also be caused if an urgent meeting occurred and there was no time to wait till all members attend.

		Anonymous
	2 Not Invited... Should you Attend a Meeting?　 There is a starting point to think/reflect to take necessary action for this situation. → Check the situational matter without judgemental mind if this is just a simple error not to be invited (...)

		PAT O REILLY Ireland
	2 Excluded of a Meeting: Turn Up This can happen in many different contexts and situations and can arise for so many reasons. Never allow your imagination or endeavour to rationalise the reason why you were excluded. Just turn up at (...)

		KALEELUL RAHUMAN Management Consultant, Saudi Arabia
	1 Not Invited - Should you Attend Meeting? It depends on the role you play in project management. Critical role players must attend the meeting and be on the checklist of attendance to follow. For others, an update of the agenda items and min (...)

		Bernice A Ghana
	1 Not Invited- Should you Attend Meeting? Thanks Devayani for the topic and summary of what needs to be done in such circumstances. However, when not invited to a meeting, one could make a quick assessment to know whether to attend the meeti (...)

		Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	1 Out in the Cold? Questions: Accepting the agenda 'frame' as given, who are the participants? Is it everyone else in the team, only 'section' leaders or only those specific to resolving the identified "issues" or ever (...)

		PeterMaria van Herpen Switzerland
	1 4 Strategies if Left Out of a Meeting The 4 strategies are nice IF (and that's a big IF) your presence at the meeting is possibly not required. The case described however, says "weekly update" meeting. If you all of the sudden do not get (...)

		Nemes Nelson Career Consultant, Tanzania
	0 Based on the Scenario There are different situations that can take place, through my observations there could be: 1. A conflict of interest between team members. 2. The effectiveness and efficiency of a worker could be u (...)