How to Run Great 1:1s in 2023 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

A practical framework about your most important meeting, my own Notion template, and plenty of resources.

In a world where we strive to reduce meetings and push for async communication, there is at least one kind of meeting we need to keep and nurture: 1:1s.

The above was the introduction I wrote in April 2021 when I published my very first article on 1:1s.

It became my most successful piece so far, when Refactoring had just ~4,000 readers. Today, it remains very popular, and people often refer to it on social media and ask me questions about it.

Why do 1:1s draw so much attention? Because, if anything, their importance has only grown with time.

Just as handcrafted goods become more precious when the majority are mass-produced, 1:1s stand out in a world full of bad meetings and shallow Slack chats.

In fact, we probably need more of them, and we need to get them right.

So, this article is meant to be a practical guide on having great 1:1s, updated for 2023. It is one of my favorite topics, and over the years I have read almost anything I could find about it. I also learned a few things I didn't find in books and would love to share.

Here is what we will cover today:

• 📖 What 1:1s are — and what they are not.

• 🎯 Why 1:1s — talking about safe spaces and open doors.

• 📋 How to have great 1:1s — the actual guide, including advice about time, topics, journaling, and how to follow up.

• ✨ Templates — my personal template for running and storing 1:1s on Notion.

• 📚 Resources — the best articles and resources to learn more.

Let's dive in!