The live hour
The live hour
Count the hours everybody is awake before scheduling anything, then spend them only on the things that cannot be written down.
Who is working when, for the people on this page
Our engineering office, Auckland
Working 08:00 to 17:00
The client's technical department, Lisbon
Working 08:00 to 17:00 their time, which is 19:00 to 04:00 here
two parties · five days of the seven are working days for all of them · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
Five working days a week in common and not one working hour. Everything on that contract was going to be written down whether anybody planned for it or not.
The Hours Everybody Is Awake, Counted
The overlap between several working days is an arithmetic fact that takes five minutes to establish, and almost no schedule is built on it.
Booking the Only Hour You Both Have
Most failed international meetings are failures of arithmetic in the invitation rather than of availability, and the arithmetic errors cluster in four places.
What a Shared Hour Is Worth Spending On
A narrow overlap is the scarcest resource in the relationship, and most of it is spent on material that travels better in writing.
The Call That Should Have Been Three Lines
A recurring call across a large offset is paid for weekly by whoever is at the wrong end of it, and the payment is never counted against what the call produces.
The Side That Could Not Attend
Somebody is always absent from an international call, and what happens to the decisions taken in their absence determines whether they ever attend again.
Whose Evening It Is, and Who Decides
The inconvenient hour lands on whoever has least standing to object, and in a commercial relationship that is reliably the party being paid.
When There Is No Shared Hour At All
Where two working days do not overlap at all, written coordination is the only available mechanism, and it needs designing rather than hoping for.
Second Languages and the Hour You Have
On most international calls at least one party is working in a second language at the hardest end of their day, which changes what the call can be used for.