While adhoc 1:1’s have their place, a scheduled and regular cadence for a 1:1 is highly recommended for consistency. A calendar invite should be sent out to the parties concerned and it should have a link to a shared and private agenda document.
A shared and private 1:1 agenda document between the two parties is an effective mechanism to line up discussion items and action items resulting from the discussion.
A good agenda document is pithy, to the point, actionable where relevant, and clearly indicates expected outcomes. This requires some preparatory work but over time, the habit will lead to a well structured 1:1. A good rule of thumb when setting agenda items is not to spend more than 10 minutes on it for an hour’s worth of discussion.
A simple example of such an agenda document is:
2019-10-31
Agenda:
Agenda items are best represented as a table, and Google Docs that allows for real time sharing, comments and action items to be assigned and tracked.
In terms of setting a 1:1 cadence, there are no hard and fast rules. Here are some commonly utilised 1:1 cadences:
Manager and direct report
For a local reporting line, 1 hour/week. Variances of 30 minutes/week to 1.5 hours/week are common. Less than 30 minutes is relatively ineffective and longer then 2 hours can result in less than productive conversations. For remote reporting lines, 1.5 hours/week. Variances of 1 hour/week to 2 hours/week are common.
Skip level in reporting chain
For local and remote reporting lines, 30 minutes every 2-4 weeks is common. For more critical or senior roles, consider an hour every 2 weeks.
Peers in direct reporting line
No hard and fast rules. Weekly, bi-weekly and monthly sessions ranging from 30 minutes to 1 hour are common.
Peers across the organisation
No hard and fast rules. Weekly, bi-weekly and monthly sessions ranging from 30 minutes to 1 hour are common.
Mentoring relationship
Highly variable depending on the level of seniority of the mentoring relationship. 30 minutes to an hour biweekly are common, as are an hour to two hours a month.
A manager should expect to spend one day a week on 1:1’s (amounting to 20% of their work week). Time commitment to 1:1’s below 10% is a cause for concern and time commitment above 30% have diminishing returns.