Relationship development x one-on-ones: when to meet with teammates you don't work with

Christine P. Dela Rosa

Context

Many have recurring one-on-ones with their managers or project leads. Many have one-on-ones with people they work with regularly as they need regular time with people they need to work with OR they need to keep informed along the way on overlapping workstreams.

Question

How do you decide when to have recurring one-on-ones with colleagues who don't directly work with you? And if you do this practice, how do you decide on the agenda and who do you meet with?

 

*Legitimately asking on behalf of another coworker (who regularly reads these discussions)

Andy Gladstone

While I have not used this personally, I have a number of close friends and contacts that swear by it. Donut for Slack seems to be an effective way to get co-workers that may not overlap in the same Venn Diagram to meet, exchange ideas, and start to understand each other's roles and responsibilities. 

This does not address the second part of your question - which is how to set an agenda - since there is no specific agenda's for these meetups.

I will caution anyone that is trying to set up 1:1 meetings with indirect reports or peers to always clear the request with the other party's supervisor first. Putting someone in an uncomfortable position to accept a meeting request when their manager/supervisor may not appreciate the 'time suck' that the meeting may take. In this case I would say better to ask permission than forgiveness - as it may undermine the point of the meeting in the first place.