Stop 6 of 7 · Weekly
One-on-ones
Prep from last time's notes, better questions, and a private record that never lands in a shared Project.
The meeting that gets cut first
Alex has nine one-on-ones a week and they are the first thing to move when a trailer breaks down. They are also the only half hour where the person in front of Alex gets to raise the thing they have been sitting on for a month. Cutting them is cheap on Tuesday and expensive in December.
Claude helps at both ends. Before, by reading the last three notes and telling Alex what is still open. After, by turning fifteen scribbled lines into a record that is actually findable in six weeks. The middle, the half hour itself, is not something to automate, and a manager reading questions off a screen is worse than a manager with no questions at all.
Two records, two homes
| Record | Contains | Lives in |
|---|---|---|
| Commitments | Who is doing what by when | The shared team page |
| Private note | Everything about the person | A Project only Alex opens |
Try this
[paste my last three notes with DM] Before Tuesday, give me: what I promised and have not delivered, anything DM raised more than once, and what has changed in DM's patch since we last spoke. Then suggest three questions for this one, none of them a status question, and tell me which of the three I would rather not ask. Use initials.
[paste my rough notes from the meeting] Split this into two blocks. Block one, commitments: who owes what by when, in a form I can paste into the team page, initials only. Block two, my private note: how DM seemed, what is worrying them, what I should watch, and what I promised to look into. Keep block two in my own plain language, do not soften it.
[paste the commitments blocks from this week's nine one-on-ones] Without naming anyone, tell me: what came up in more than three of these, what my team is waiting on from me, and which of the three quarter priorities nobody mentioned at all. That last one is the question I actually care about.