I wonder whether other people also like to have deadlines asked for for their feedback or have specific dates suggested for meeting? Sometimes I prefer to have someone ask for feedback within a week than within 6 months (or as soon as is convenient), because it forces me to get it off my to-do list. Though it’s best of both worlds if they also indicate that if I can’t do it in that time it’s ok.
Yes, I agree clear deadlines are helpful! The two categories of deadlines I’m most responsive to are:
“I’m sorry to ask on short notice, but I’d love your feedback this week...” The acknowledgment that this might result in some reshuffling of plans in order to get to giving feedback/landing a call makes it feel like you’re truly helping someone out, which can lead to some warm glow effects. It certainly goes over better than a terse “I’d like to get on the phone tomorrow or as soon as you can this week”—which feels a bit more like a burden.
“Sometime in the next 3-5 months, as time allows.” The considerateness and flexibility in this sort of phrasing means I probably schedule these calls at least as quickly as the requests that are in the mode of a terse “sometime this month, please.”
All the other processes mentioned above seem very sensible to me and I don’t have much to add. Perhaps teeing up the key tradeoff you’re weighing. For example “I’d like to establish X as a process, but that will cause a lot of hassle in terms of setup time, etc. Are there other pros/cons that come to mind with you about this particular approach or phrasing?” Sometimes that will prime the person to start populating benefits or risks on the +/- ledger that you had missed, and you’ll get more-valuable feedback from a busy person than, say, “that sounds good to me!” or “hmm, that process does sound annoying. To be honest I can’t think of a better one at the moment, though.”
I wonder whether other people also like to have deadlines asked for for their feedback or have specific dates suggested for meeting? Sometimes I prefer to have someone ask for feedback within a week than within 6 months (or as soon as is convenient), because it forces me to get it off my to-do list. Though it’s best of both worlds if they also indicate that if I can’t do it in that time it’s ok.
Yes, I agree clear deadlines are helpful! The two categories of deadlines I’m most responsive to are:
“I’m sorry to ask on short notice, but I’d love your feedback this week...” The acknowledgment that this might result in some reshuffling of plans in order to get to giving feedback/landing a call makes it feel like you’re truly helping someone out, which can lead to some warm glow effects. It certainly goes over better than a terse “I’d like to get on the phone tomorrow or as soon as you can this week”—which feels a bit more like a burden.
“Sometime in the next 3-5 months, as time allows.” The considerateness and flexibility in this sort of phrasing means I probably schedule these calls at least as quickly as the requests that are in the mode of a terse “sometime this month, please.”
All the other processes mentioned above seem very sensible to me and I don’t have much to add. Perhaps teeing up the key tradeoff you’re weighing. For example “I’d like to establish X as a process, but that will cause a lot of hassle in terms of setup time, etc. Are there other pros/cons that come to mind with you about this particular approach or phrasing?” Sometimes that will prime the person to start populating benefits or risks on the +/- ledger that you had missed, and you’ll get more-valuable feedback from a busy person than, say, “that sounds good to me!” or “hmm, that process does sound annoying. To be honest I can’t think of a better one at the moment, though.”