Structuring Effective 1:1 Meetings for Growth and Alignment

1:1 meetings are a critical component of effective management. They provide an opportunity to align on priorities, raise concerns, discuss progress, and facilitate personal and professional growth. However, to ensure these meetings are meaningful and actionable, a structured approach is preferable. This structure should balance business needs with personal development, provide space for both expected work and growth opportunities, and enable open and honest conversations about performance and engagement.

The approach detailed here incorporates several key mechanisms:

• Objectives and Key Results (OKR) are used to track expected work and ensure alignment with broader team and business goals. These provide a mix of committed and aspirational goals, ensuring both accountability and ambition (see Example OKR).
• A development plan is included to create space for learning and innovation beyond the immediate job responsibilities. By setting aside dedicated time, employees can explore new skills and approaches that may benefit the business in the long run.
• A happiness retrospective allows for structured feedback on work satisfaction, helping managers identify what’s working well and what needs improvement. Using a Discrete Visual Analog scale as a lead indicator helps track engagement trends over time.
• A performance conversation ensures clarity on expectations, offering both the manager’s and direct report’s perspectives. This structured evaluation helps maintain transparency and drive growth discussions.

By incorporating these elements, this 1:1 meeting structure fosters alignment, encourages continuous improvement, and strengthens the manager-direct report relationship. Below is a detailed breakdown of the approach structured using the PODS framework (Purpose, Outcome, Decisions, Structure).

Purpose

• Align on priorities, raise concerns, and discuss progress.

Outcomes

• Both parties have visibility on the direct report’s progress.
• The direct report understands their growth journey.
• The direct report has an outlet for voicing concerns.

Decisions

• Is there anything the manager needs to do to help the direct report?
• Is there anything the direct report needs to do to help the manager?

Structure

1. Review Personal Objectives and Key Results (OKR)

OKR are essential as they define what is expected in the "day job."

• If the direct report is a manager, begin with a review of their team OKR.
  • Evaluate progress using lead indicators.
  • Assess confidence in achieving key results (lagging indicators).
• For both managers and individual contributors:
  • Review personal OKR, which capture what the direct report wants to achieve relative to team/business OKR.
  • Balance aspirations with business needs through negotiation with the manager.
  • Document and track OKR using a Kanban board.
  • OKR should include both committed and aspirational goals.

2. Review Development Plan

Development plans focus on skills and knowledge that are difficult to acquire within the standard day job.

• This supports growth, experimentation, and innovation.
• Should consist of 2-3 focus areas.
• Progress should be tracked on a Kanban board.
• Dedicated time blocks for development (e.g., one afternoon per week).
• Examples:
  • Engineers learning functional programming, even if not currently in use within the business.

3. Happiness Retrospective

A structured approach to understanding employee satisfaction and engagement.

• :-) (Happy) – Maintain these aspects.
• :-( (Sad) – Address and work to resolve these.
• :-/ (Confused) – Discuss and clarify, as these can become future happy or sad moments.
• Overall happiness rating on a Discrete Visual Analog scale (1-5):
  • 1: Sad
  • 3: Neutral
  • 5: Happy
• This rating serves as a lead indicator for employee engagement scores.

4. Performance Conversation

A structured conversation for performance evaluation.

• Uses a Discrete Visual Analog scale from 1 to 5:
  • 1: Should no longer be in the business due to consistently failing to meet expectations.
  • 2: Needs improvement to meet expectations.
  • 3: Performing well in the current role (a good result if they want to stay in the role).
  • 4: Beginning to take on elements of the next role.
  • 5: Missed opportunity to promote i.e. should already be in the next role.
• Both the manager and direct report provide their independent ratings.
• The conversation aims to ensure alignment and identify areas for improvement.
• This is a bi-directional conversation between the manager and direct report i.e. both the manager and direct report are measured on the same scale.

Conclusion

This structured 1:1 meeting format ensures that discussions are purposeful and actionable. It provides a structure for tracking performance, professional development, and engagement while also fostering open communication between managers and their teams. By following this approach, both managers and employees can work together to drive growth and success.