‘1:1s’. Done badly 1+1 = 0. Done well 1+1=10!
/By Duncan Anderson and Rex Roseman. To see all blogs click here.
Summary: Everything is the outcome of human capital. So if you can upgrade human capital you upgrade everything. ‘1:1s’ have gone from a thing I didn’t like to one of the best ways I know of to improve others and myself.
Overview:
What is ‘1:1’?
It’s a meeting set aside each week for a ‘manager : direct report’ to talk for up to an hour. A ‘one on one’ meeting.
What do you talk about and do? I’ve changed this massively over the years. See details below.
I had 1:1s in past jobs and found them to be a waste of time.
I’ve slowly been able to improve how I do 1:1s from being ‘negative sum waste of time’ to ‘the best part of my week’.
Personnel 1:1 = 1. Keeping the wheels on + 2. Upgrading each other
Basically, ‘1:1s’ are now 80% about ‘2. Upgrading each other’.
IT’S THE BEST! I used to get zero improvement in 1:1s, now I get massive improvement and more than that, ~10x the improvement I got a year ago… I hope in a year from today I can be 10x the improvement again!
“2. Upgrading each other” strategies for ‘1:1s’ (read on for details on these strategies)
Strategy: Replaying a recent event and both people in the 1:1 playing 'if I had my time again could I have done this better from a logic perspective?'
Strategy: Replaying a recent event and together playing 'if I had my time again could I have done this better from an emotion (empathy) perspective?'
Strategy: Asking the other person to take me through their thought process for something (this is different to event replaying as it's more 'you did this written proposal, take me through that').
Strategy: Put forward an idea for the other to consider and then discuss together how you might have used the idea in a recent event
Strategy: Go through something that someone else did particularly well or not so well and try and understand what happened (eg from logic or emotional lens)
Meaningfully affecting another is one of the most rewarding things I know of. 1:1s done well are one of the best vehicles I know to meaningfully improve another.
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” - Carl Jung. I find that trying to find ways to help others helps me find ways to improve myself. Getting good at helping others = getting good at helping yourself.
Jingle: Done badly 1 + 1 = 0. Done well 1 + 1 = 10!!!
+++++++++++++++
Details:
Don't be too busy to improve :)
How DA thinks about People '1:1s':
At Edrolo everyone has a regular 1:1 with their manager
This is a big time commitment in the company and a big part of the leadership team at Edrolo
If we are going to commit this time, we want it to be valuable
As with everything, 1:1’s done well add tremendous value, 1:1’s done wrong will be draining
How I think about 1:1’s
1:1 can be come in all different shapes and sizes, IMO 1:1 should be focused on upgrading human capital and getting work done, below is the equation I use to think about the components of 1:1
Personnel 1:1 = 1. Keeping the wheels on + 2. Upgrading each other
1. Keeping the wheels on = 1. Workflow management + 2. Build an understanding of motivation + 3. Motivation management (this needs to be mutually positive sum, the direct should not be dependent on their manager)
This component of a 1:1 is all about getting sh!t done and making sure the direct is motivated and able to bring up any issues that may be on their mind and affecting their ability to work
2. Upgrading each other = 4. Problem solving + 5. Gift giving + 6. Discuss people’s learning and writing
4. Problem solving = an opportunity for the other person to give you a gift. Eg i was hoping to see how you’d approach this. Eg I’ve got this thing, how would you approach it.
5. Gift giving = opportunity to level up for the other person. Mostly do this through provoking thought vs force feeding.
6. Discuss people’s learning and writing
Writing = thinking
Writing = problem solving
Writing = communication
Upgrading writing = upgrading everything. Talking about someone’s ‘learning’ is often one of the easiest ways to give them an gift.
Upgrading each other can go both ways, while it is mostly on the manager to upgrade the direct, the direct certainly should try upgrade the manager where they can
We can always improve and everyone can improve each other
What is achievable through 1:1
I never used to like 1:1 in previous jobs, they felt like a waste of time
It took me a long time to realise what could be achieved through them and even longer time to upgrade myself in how to run them
I have come to realise that 1:1 are the most effective way we have to improve edrolo and therefore education and the world
Human capital is our product (the goal of a Maths textbook isn’t better maths test scores, IMO it’s better humans. The goal of a humanities textbook isn’t better humanities test scores, it’s better humans), human capital is everything
Improving is limitless, we will never be done improving
The 1:1 taxonomy of indefinite improvements forever
Keegans 1:1 from view of direct taxonomy
L1 - My manager gives my priorities
L2 - I am to discuss my priorities and what I think I should do with my manager
L3 - My 1:1 is a mutual positive sum environment that motivates me to work on my priorities
L4 - My manager grows me beyond my priorities
L5 - I am able to limitlessly transcend my abilities to do new work I didn’t think I could do and grow my manager in the process
This is amazing, so if done well, we can limitlessly improve ourselves forever and this can be done in a mutually positive sum way between the manager and direct
Practical - How DA runs 1:1’s
This is how I think 1:1s should be run, this is not how 1:1 have to be run at Edrolo
However I do think that everyone should be striving to get to L5 in all of their one on ones :)
Pre 1:1 meeting:
Send weekly email and read as prep for the meeting making notes in the weekly email
Have an ongoing doc of things you’d like to speak to someone about at the next 1:1. When you have ideas to talk about in the 1:1 dump them into the doc (my doc is now 81k words!)
In 1:1 meeting:
First do: “1. Keeping the wheels on”
Go through these areas as needed (not all needed every week)
Review last week’s execution vs plan (eg mega blowouts etc)
Check in on the status of key deliverables
Plan for the next week / workflow management (eg anything need to be shifted around from different people)
Motivation / stress
Anything in weekly email that jumps out
Points that are best to bring up in person (eg email is not the best medium)
Depending on the experience of the direct and how long you have built your relationship for this may be a small component of the 1:1 or a large component
Over time as the direct gets more independent the time spent on this should decrease
Then the best bit: “2. Upgrading each other” - Trying to find ways to upgrade each other (treasure hunt, using eg treasure taxonomy):
From the lens of yourself (however you can learn from everything and everyone):
Strategy 1: Replaying a recent event and both people in the 1:1 playing 'if I had my time again could I have done this better from a logic perspective?'
Replaying by talking aloud with someone in a 1:1 massively massively helps me understand myself.
It's kind of like post game analysis. "Then Duncan fumbled the ball and passed it to the other team..."
I think you can learn from many places... but a huge one is by looking in the recent rear view mirror. IMO not looking in the recent review view mirror with a colleague is robbing yourself of some of the lowest hanging upgrade fruits.
Strategy 2: Replaying a recent event and together playing 'if I had my time again could I have done this better from an emotion (empathy) perspective?'
From the lens of the other in the meeting (however you can learn from everything and everyone):
Strategy 3: Asking the other person to take me through their thought process for something (this is different to event replaying as it's more 'you did this written proposal, take me through that').
I find attempting to articulate and analyse together such FUN!
Just attempting to articulate what I did I find massively revealing. In education research this is called ‘the explanation effect’.
Strategy 4: Asking the other person if we can replay an event of theirs from the last week from a logic perspective
Strategy 5: Asking the other person if we can replay an event of theirs from the last week from an emotion perspective
From the lens of ideas (however you can learn from everything and everyone):
Strategy 6: Put forward an idea for the other to consider and then discuss together how you might have used the idea in a recent event
Eg I've been playing with the idea of "push vs support vs intervene vs leave alone". In this circumstance, if I had my time again, I think I would do 'support' instead of 'push'. Here is my [reason], thoughts?
This is through the lens of “Idea => Event”. Strategy 1 is more through the lens of “Event => Idea”
From the lens of helping people not in the meeting (however you can learn from everything and everyone):
Strategy 7: Go through something that someone else did particularly well or not so well and try and understand what happened (eg from logic or emotional lens)
Eg did you see this from Person X. IMO epic redirection of energy from Person Y to a positive sum outcome. Do you feel this is a fair characertisation
Comment
These strategies are some of the ideas I have had for how to look for upgrades and by no way is this an exhaustive list
Limitedless upgrades means there is limitless ways to find upgrades
Everyone should be excited to go looking for them and together we will improve the world
Basically by looking at yourself and others with people in a '1:1' I find that I'm: 1. able to find way more 'ingredients' * 2. understand 'ingredients and models' much better => 3. much bigger possible upgrades (treasure)
I use to do zero of 'things like the 7 strategies above' in '1:1s' 3 years ago. Now the amount of 'treasure' I get out of '1:1s' is terrific! Arrr, analysing with me pirate treasured (work)maties!
Through things like the strategies above I’ve been able to go from 1:1s where there were no ‘upgrades’ to ‘upgrades in almost every 1:1’.
Improvements used to be impossible. Now improvements are infinite!
If you take one thing away from this blog, what should it be?
That 1:1s can be so much more than just keeping the wheels on, they are a place to build a strong relationship centred about the upgrading each other
This won’t happen organically though you need to actively think about what you are getting out of 1:1 and make sure the environment is working for you
You may not be at L5 in your 1:1 but that is okay, you can get there you can build them up and improve, we are always improving, we will always be improving
Hopefully this is energizing and if you haven’t thought of 1:1s like this before you can start to shift your mindset and figure what you can do to improve the 1:1’s you run or the 1:1 you have with you manager