Not Invited... Should you Attend a Meeting?

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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 date▼ Comments by rating Rating
		1 PeterMaria van Herpen Switzerland
	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 invited, that could be due to something innocent, like somebody did not use the distribution list, someone accidentally deleted the list, you know, little mistakes which can happen all the time, but need correction. So, join the meeting, point out at the end of the meeting under 'various' that your name got deleted from the list, all have a good laugh and some good-natured leg-pulling and be done with it. But it also _could_ be a dirty approach to get you out. And, yes, do check your ego, and yes, be rational, but also do be careful. Mobbing starts this way. Make sure you will not be on the receiving end of it. (and no, never participate on the sending part, but then who would? You'd be surprised.).

		2 PAT O REILLY Ireland
	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 the next meeting and if someone has a problem let them say so. Then deal with the facts.

		2 Anonymous
	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 or there is any emotional intention behind this event. 1. If the former seems to be the case, just point it out to the organiser asking to re-check and correct. 2. If the latter seems to be right, we need to fully reflect ourselves sincerely "What did I say/do intentionally or unintentionally to cause this situation?" and take necessary corrective action to those who were affected by us.

		0 Nemes Nelson Career Consultant, Tanzania
	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...

		2 Doaa Saayed Professor, Lebanon
	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...

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	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...

		1 Bernice A Ghana
	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...

		1 KALEELUL RAHUMAN Management Consultant, Saudi Arabia
	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...

		2 Pierre AKMEL Strategy Consultant, France
	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 ...