I use Google Calendar. I like I can share my calendar with whomever I need, which in turn means I can also ‘see’ other public calendars and those of my colleagues – when they choose to share. Using the calendar this way makes it easy to prevent obvious clashes. But there’s another and more attractive use.
Instead of arranging mutually agreed meeting times etc, I now suggest that anyone who wishes an appointment, set up it up in Google calendar. I get an email which includes a simple Yes/No for me to accept or reject that appointment plus set a reminder.
Most of the time this works really well. The advantage for those wishing an appointment is that it puts control back in their hands. This is important for most of my contacts because they work across different time zones. Conceptually, this is no different from the client who can’t get in to see you for several hours/days/weeks.
You don’t have to make your appointments diary public though as time goes on, I see little advantage in maintaining a private calendar, except in very specific competitive circumstances. Professionals might like to think in terms of confidentiality but does that extend to the simple task of making an appointment?
I can’t count the number of times I used to see clients at the office and they’d be chatting to other clients waiting to meet staff and partners. On reflection, it seems to me that was a useful social function but one which we never recognised or capitalised upon. We kid ourselves if we think clients don’t know about others for whom we act.
Technorati Tags: Google Calendar, innovation
