Sacred One-on-Ones as Culture Infrastructure

"Every two weeks, each person at Zume has a one-hour, one-on-one conversation with whomever they report to. (Julia and I converse with each other.) It’s a sacred time. You cannot be late; you cannot cancel. There’s only one other rule: You don’t talk about work. The agenda is you, the individual, and what you are trying to accomplish personally over the next two to three years, and how you’re breaking that into a two-week plan. I like to start with three questions: What makes you very happy? What saps your energy? How would you describe your dream job?"

"Andy made one-on-ones mandatory at Intel. The point of the meeting, he wrote, is mutual teaching and exchange of information. By talking about specific problems and situations, the supervisor teaches the subordinate his skills and know-how, and suggests ways to approach things. At the same time, the subordinate provides the supervisor with detailed information about what he is doing and what he is concerned about. . . . A key point about a one-on-one: It should be regarded as the subordinate’s meeting, with its agenda and tone set by him. . . . The supervisor is there to learn and coach.* The supervisor should also encourage the discussion of heart-to-heart issues during one-on-ones, because this is the perfect forum for getting at subtle and deep work-related problems affecting his subordinate. Is he satisfied with his own performance? Does some frustration or obstacle gnaw at him? Does he have doubts about where he is going?"

"A leader might say, “This goal seems very important to you, but you didn’t make a lot of progress on it the last two weeks. Why is that?” It may seem paradoxical, but these nonwork, touchpoint one-on-ones are a forum for ongoing performance feedback. In talking about people’s pursuit of personal goals, you end up learning a lot about what moves them forward—or holds them back—in their careers. When you’re having regular, deeper conversations, you get a sense of when you need to turn the dial and give people a chance to charge their batteries. After the organization has completed an all-out sprint, you might dial up contributors’ time for personal development goals—say, from 5 percent to 15 or 20 percent—the next quarter. It might sound like a huge tax, but it will set up the company’s two or three quarters of execution."