Steven Rogelberg

Would it surprise you to know?

• Nearly half of 1:1s are rated as being suboptimal
• That managers believe their 1:1s went better than their direct reports
• That poorly conducted 1:1s can derail employee engagement, thriving, and inclusion
• That 1:1s are arguably the most important tool for building genuine connections and retaining employees. This is true especially in hybrid work environments
• That directs can engage in 5 particular behaviors that can serve to elevate the 1:1
• Apart from the potential to critically influence productivity, retention, alignment, relationship and development outcomes for directs, successful 1:1s can elevate manager success and allow them to re-capture valuable time
• There is a robust science to help us navigate key 1:1 decisions around cadence, agenda creation, the types of questions to ask, and what a leader and direct report needs to do assure a constructive and valuable experience.

There are approximately 200 million 1:1 meetings a day around the globe. Yet, the research clearly shows that 1) the effectiveness of these meetings is far from optimal; 2) that when managers self-rate their skills in conducting these meetings, it is inflated and does not align with their directs’ ratings and 3) that directs can, but often fail to, play a key role in assuring success. Hence, an incredible opportunity exists to fill the skills gap and maximize return of a tremendous time investment.

1:1s could be one of the most crucial meeting types for the success of team members, managers, teams, and organizations. The best managers recognize that 1:1s are not an add-on to their role as a manager—conducting 1:1s proficiently IS foundational to being a manager. Equally critical, the most successful employees recognize that they have the ability to shape the 1:1 to assure their work and personal needs are met. When a manager and direct report fully embrace this, the potential of 1:1s for transforming people and teams can be realized. Successful 1:1s positively affect day-to-day activities through discussion of productivity blockers, coordination, and alignment. And, they are also so much more. Namely, these meetings fundamentally influence a direct report’s experience at work, including how they engage and attach to their role, perceive the effectiveness of their manager as a leader, and envision their future at the organization. 1:1s also promote manager success. Specifically, effective 1:1s result in more focused, engaged, aligned, and successful team members. A managers’ success/performance hinges on the achievements of those they lead. 1:1s fill managers’ calendars, but meaningful guidance on how to conduct them effectively is quite sparse. The goal of this session is to encourage you to realize the full potential of every 1:1 meeting, without feeling like you are just wallowing in wasted meeting time. It highlights what managers and direct reports can do to assure success in these critical meetings.

Drawing from over 20 years of research and evidence Dr. Steven Rogelberg collected from leaders, directs, and c-suite leaders in some of the most respected companies in the world, the topics covered in this session include:

• Why effective 1:1s are critical to your success and the success of your team –contrasting with ad hoc meeting approaches
• Keys to success and 10 common mistakes to avoid from both the manager and direct report perspective.
• Messaging and positioning 1:1s for maximum value
• Finding the correct 1:1 cadence and meeting length to maximize positive impact without over-meeting
• Managing the intricate balance of productivity-building, relationship-building, and employee development
• Designing 1:1s with intentionality, from where to conduct the meeting (e.g., virtual) to building agendas to optimize effectiveness
• How to evaluate if your 1:1s are actually working as hoped.Importantly, while this session focuses on the manager/direct report 1:1, learnings are also highly relevant to 1:1s with peers, customers, and skip-levels.

While we often think about meetings as being places of drain, meetings done well can actually be places of personal and team gain. The key, leveraging evidence-based practices to make meetings genuinely engaging and inclusive. You will learn what we know about virtual, hybrid, and face-to-face meetings from an evidence-based perspective and gain knowledge and resources on how to effectively lead meetings to promote engagement and inclusion. The goal, better meetings and people leaving your meetings energized and feeling valued, rather than frustrated and suffering from meeting recovery syndrome.

Dr. Steven Rogelberg, a highly decorated and award-winning researcher, speaker, and teacher shares an exciting evidence-based path for organizations, teams, committees, and leaders to realize the true potential of meetings to build genuine inclusion and assure ROI on what is a massive investment of time.  His newest research focusing on maximizing the value of virtual meetings and new approaches to brainstorming will be highlighted.

This session has the following primary goals:
1. Changing meeting culture starts with each leader running their meetings in the most effective/inclusive manner possible. This is not only key for maximizing productivity but given that leader practices become normative for others, it is critical that the practices that cascade informally down the organization are optimal. Leveraging the science of meetings, evidence-based approaches to running meetings, and preventing meeting overload, will be discussed and illustrated.
2. Within every organization, an implicit and explicit meeting ecosystem exists. This ecosystem drives meeting load/demands and meeting practices. To address the importance of examining and altering the ecosystem to support meeting excellence Dr. Steven Rogelberg will:
a. Discuss what leaders can do to implement new standards and approaches to meetings with their teams, designing to maximize meeting quality, but also return time to their teams through decreased meeting activity, decreased meeting sizes, and decreased meeting  ime. Ultimately, leaders need to start having new conversations with their teams. Conversations about priorities, when a meeting is needed or not needed, when to invite and when not to invite, and about creating a new set of norms and standards around meetings to break old cycles and habits. Conversations that move away from the “wallowing in meetings hell” lament, and more into how we can make meetings truly work for us and become a competitive advantage for the team, while elevating employee experience, including work-life balance.
b. Briefly share best practices from other organizations to address the ecosystem.