Cancel Your 1:1s

Experts advise young founders that it is proper management technique to hold a weekly meeting for an hour with each member of your direct staff. To do otherwise means you are irresponsible manager!

But it turns out that 1:1s simply saddle your organization with unnecessary cost in time, speed and alignment. First, consider that if you have ten direct reports, your calendar will be filled up with 10 hours of meetings per week just of 1:1 meetings! In a traditional 40 hour week, that’s 25% used. But that’s only part of the cost. I have found also that 1:1s tend to turn away from actual business content and veer toward politics and complaints about people. These conversations are almost never helpful.

Next, almost all content discussed in a 1:1 is better in a group setting, to bring others into the strategy and decision making of what is going on. Why isolate people? Bringing people together makes a more cohesive team.

Finally, on speed: If someone has something to tell you, if you have a scheduled 1:1 they may queue it up and wait to tell you then. This dramatically slows the company down! Everyone should be providing information in real-time, as it is necessary.

Jensen Huang doesn’t hold regular 1:1 meetings with his direct reports, neither do I, and neither should you.

If you need to talk to someone, just do it.