How do you use 1-1 meetings? Do you use Asana for them?

Every company I’ve worked at uses 1-1 meetings slightly differently. Some are status-update oriented, some focus more on mentorship and employee happiness, and others end up being a grab bag of questions that have come up. Regardless, I love being able to set the talking points in a shared project with my report/manager so no one is caught off guard.

Curious to know what you try to achieve in your 1-1 meetings, if you set them up in Asana, and if there are any out of the box things you’ve tried in them that have worked. If you use Asana for your agendas, what sections do you normally include? The sections we at Asana use (more details in our 1-1 meeting blog post) are:

  • Discuss this week
  • Revisit later
  • Roadblocks and wins
  • Goals
  • Action items
5 Likes

Hi Jessie

Our 1-1 meetings are based around performance review, and we’re measured against our job descriptions. We have one every quarter, with an annual review that feeds into decisions on overall performance and possible bonuses. Our 1-1s include these sections:

  • LOOKING BACK – Review of actions from last meeting
  • Key achievements since last 1-1 – what you’ve achieved and how?
  • Reflection – issues? barriers? challenges? concerns? what could you have done differently?
  • Performance improvements needed/Development needs
  • LOOKING AHEAD – areas of focus for the next weeks/months (what and how)?
  • Actions
  • Summary (Managers to complete)
  • Current performance

I use Asana to record possible evidence, key achievements and issues. In My Tasks, I use a ‘121’ tag for anything that I think might be relevant. I also set up a private workspace, just for my manager and me, with a project for each 1-1. When my 1-1 is coming up, I run an advanced search report for any tasks associated with the ‘121’ tag which were completed in the last 3 months. I then whittle that list down to only the most relevant points, copy them all, then paste them straight into the project in the 1-1 workspace.

We also use certain behaviours (operational excellence, commerciality, agility, etc) to rate performance. So within my 1-1 workspace I have tags for each behaviour, which I can associate with relevant tasks, as evidence that I’ve demonstrated those behaviours. When the 1-1 is finished, I can export the whole thing and put it straight into a document in my HR folder.

Done! :slight_smile:

10 Likes

Mark, that’s very thorough. Thanks for sharing! Also sounds like you have a pretty complex but organized system for keeping track of all the wins / performance indicators you want to share with your manager. I’m impressed!

2 Likes

@Mark_Hudson this is so good! Thanks for taking the time to articulate that bud!!! :slight_smile:

1 Like

I used the Asana 1:1 template to bring my boss onboard with Asana :wink:

1 Like