I was reviewing my PowerPoint presentation at work and my coworkers AND my nemesis really, really wanted me to cite myself on a slide where I was offering student staff some sensible guidelines on communication, specifically how to protect themselves. I suppose this can be a blog post because I am terrible at keeping up with blogging.

“Can I get that in writing?”

• Always ask for important information to be written or emailed to you
• If you don’t have it – ask for it again – in writing
• You can also summarize what was discussed from your perspective and ask if that is the same understanding the other party had

“Thanks for chatting with me. I’m going to send you a follow up email just indicating that we had this conversation and what I believe I took away from it.”

• This email shows that you did have that conversation and the other party had the chance to correct anything that may have been incorrect.

“Right on. Let’s meet at 2:00 PM to do your checkout. I’ll send a calendar invite to you so we don’t forget!”

• Putting this in writing helps keep both you and others accountable to deadlines you’ve mutually set up
• Very useful to put any deadlines for follow up on your own calendar as well immediately after receiving a deadline.