Do you walk your talk?

I was in a team offsite about a year ago where we took part in an activity working with the different personalities of the team. We were asked to identify the probability of us attending an event if we told the organizer one of the listed replies. Options ranged from definitely, sounds fun, maybe, not sure, to can’t make it. The percentages varied for the team across the options. I found it interesting that I was the only one who said that definitely meant 100% chance I would attend. Some doubted me and I shared that when I say I’m going to be somewhere I show. If I have any doubt, then I state it up front. I believe in full transparency.

I’ve been planning events since college. I did a lot as an RA, but even more since moving to LA. My adventure group has hosted over 1,500 in five years. We’ve actually got our system set up that when someone signs up for a trip we see what other trips they’ve attended and what they’ve canceled on. Now to be honest, I have “flaked” three times on weekend trips since my arrival in LA over eight years ago. All turned out to be disasters (for lack of a better description), but that is a relatively low number given how many trips and events I attend.

In the first third of this year I’ve attended numerous events (Happy hours, conferences, etc) and watched an event organizer scramble at the last minute as the number of flakes increases. I’ve seen thousands of dollars wasted in event budget, some by the no-show attendee, some by the hosting organization. I don’t what annoys me more, those who have terrible excuses for bailing out, those who don’t evaluate the commitment they’re making or those who wait to the last minute to finalize they won’t attend.

Where am I going with this? I guess I’m curious if we are failing to set good expectations as a society. I know we are far more advanced in terms of tools to keep us organized, so saying we forgot is a terrible reason to no show. We have events on Evite that allow us to add to our calendar and we have Google that syncs with our iPhone calendars. But maybe there is just too much information coming across and our bandwith isn’t wide enough. Maybe we’re just not organized and don’t know what we’re committing to when we RSVP.

This is also beyond RSVP’ing for events. This extends to calling people back, following through on promises. I am amazed by the stat that employees say they spend 20% of their time following up on people who do not do what they said. Regardless of your reasons, remember that the only sustainable competitive advantage you have is your reputation.

Do you flake? If people flake on you, do you hold them accountable? If so, how?