The all powerful Calendar Invite. Are you using it?

Researchers sent university employees one of two emails about flu vaccinations. One invited them to book an appointment. The other gave them an appointment already scheduled, with links to change or cancel it. The friction shifted from booking the pointing - to cancelling it.

45% of the pre-booked group got vaccinated, compared with 33% of those asked to book for themselves. Both groups could choose whether to attend, but for the pre-booked group - the labour of deciding when was removed.

There’s a useful workplace application to explore here. Asking people to invest in their learning, engage in mentoring or carve out collaboration time as a team creates an extra task. Providing a suggested slot, with an easy way to change or decline it, will help more people get to get started - because look - we all need a nudge to do good things.

Want your team to do more prospecting? Make Monday morning 10-12 the block when it’s done as a team. Want more managers to talk with their teams about their engagement score? Put a calendar hold in their calendar and help them prep. Want to improve your team’s connection? Bring them together once a month.

Consider what behaviours would make the difference to you, and or your team - and pop them in the calendar now. Need help thinking it through? Book a chat with me to explore - 30 minutes, no charge! I’d love to hear what you’re working on.

Source: Chapman, G. B., Li, M., Colby, H., & Yoon, H. (2010). Opting in vs opting out of influenza vaccination. JAMA, 304(1), 43–44.