Running a productive 1:1 — IC + manager view
What you'll learn
- 1:1 ≠ status meeting. Agenda owned by the IC.
- Manager doesn't cancel; signal cost is too high.
- End with named owners + dates, not 'we should look into that'.
A 1:1 is not a status meeting (your written update covers that). It's for: topics the IC wants to raise, career trajectory, feedback in both directions, and one cross-functional question that needs the manager's reach. Shared agenda doc owned by the IC, edited by both, last 5 minutes left blank for the unplanned topic that always emerges.
Cancel-able? Only by the IC, not by the manager. Manager-cancelled 1:1s communicate that the manager's calendar matters more than the IC's growth — even when that wasn't the intent.
End with explicit action items: who owns what, by when. No 'we should look into that' — that's a euphemism for 'this won't happen'. Either someone owns it with a date, or the meeting decided not to do it.
Key points
- 1:1 ≠ status meeting. Agenda owned by the IC.
- Manager doesn't cancel; signal cost is too high.
- End with named owners + dates, not 'we should look into that'.
Pitfalls
- Skipping a 1:1 because 'nothing to discuss' — the meeting is where you find the things.
- Manager dominating the agenda; the IC stops bringing topics.
- Action items that name no owner.
Ask your L&D team
In a real Adept rollout this routes to your company's L&D Claude project; in the demo it opens a fresh Claude chat.