Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings

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 managers self-ratings of their skills in conducting these meetings is inflated and not aligned with their directs. 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 critical meeting types for the success of team members, manager, teams, and organizations. The best managers recognize that 1:1s are not an add-on to their role as a manager—conducting 1:1s successfully ARE foundational to being a manager. In many regards, these 1:1s are where leadership really happens in a deep and meaningful way. When a manager fully embraces this, the potential of 1:1s for transforming their people and their team 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. Namely, effective 1:1s make team members more focused, engaged, aligned, and successful - managers are judged by the success and achievements of those they lead. 

Despite 1:1s filling managers’ calendars, meaningful guidance on how to conduct them effectively is quite sparse. This session is about how to realize the full potential of every 1:1 meeting, without feeling like you are just wallowing in wasted meeting time.

Leveraging research and evidence Dr. Rogelberg has collected over 20 years from leaders, directs, and c-suite leaders from some of the most respected companies in the world, some of the topics covered during this event 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
• How to personalize your 1:1 approach to fit you and your direct reports – one size does not fit all
• 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
• Acting as leader coach and leveraging key skills around facilitation, listening, and feedback-giving
• How to evaluate if your 1:1s are actually working as hoped.
• Leveraging skip-level 1:1s

Importantly, while this session focusses on the manager/direct report 1:1, learnings are highly relevant to 1:1s with peers, customers, and skip-levels. 

Speaker Bio

Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg, an organizational psychologist, holds the title of Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte for distinguished national, international and interdisciplinary contributions.  He is an award-winning teacher and recipient of the very prestigious Humboldt Award for his research on meetings.  Adam Grant has called Steven the “worlds leading expert on how to fix meetings”.

Dr. Rogelberg’s previous book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance (Oxford) has been on over 25 “best of” lists including being recognized by the Washington Post as the #1 leadership book to watch for. His new book, Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings was released in January and is already receiving tremendous praise. For example Dan Pink writes: The world’s leading scholar of meetings unpacks the most important meeting of all — direct conversations between managers and team members. Rooted in deep research and replete with actionable takeaways, this book will transform how — and why — you conduct these essential encounters. GLAD WE MET is an urgent read for anyone trying to find their footing on the modern workplace’s new terrain.

Rogelberg has been interviewed or featured on major TV broadcasts (e.g.  CBS This Morning, multiple times on CNN, BBC World), radio (e.g., NPR’s Morning Edition), leading podcasts (e.g., Freakonomics, HBR IdeaCast; Dan Pink, Bloomberg News), and in most major newspapers and magazines (e.g., WSJ, Bloomberg, NY Times, London Guardian, New York Magazine, and National Geographic magazine). 

Rogelberg’s keynotes on meetings span the globe and occur at the world’s leading organizations including but not limited to Google, Facebook, Amazon, Pfizer, Cisco, Bank of America, PayPal, Dell, The United Nations, 3M, RAND, The Security Exchange Commission, Corning, Siemens, London Stock Exchange, TIAA, and Warner Brothers.  

Rogelberg was invited and testified to the US Congress (2022) on the topic of being successful and engaging others in very difficult working environments – using organizational psychology to elevate members of congress, their staffs, and the institution.

Invited and named to the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches Group, “100 Coaches Community brings together the world’s premier leadership thinkers” to seek ways to advance positive impact and give back to society. 

Dr. Rogelberg has run three consulting centers, engaged with many Fortune 500 companies, and served on multiple advisory boards.  He founded and currently directs two large outreach initiatives, spanning 8 universities, focusing on nonprofit organization effectiveness. Over 5000 nonprofits have been served.

He was the inaugural winner of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Humanitarian Award and just finished his term as President of SIOP, the largest professional organizational in the world for I-O psychology.

He has been a visiting scholar and guest speaker at universities around the world including: Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), BI Norwegian Business School (Norway), Peking University (China),  University of Edinburgh (Scotland), Reykjavik  University (Iceland), Hong Kong Baptist University, The University of Sheffield (England), The University of Zurich (Switzerland), The University of Tel Aviv (Israel), Technion University (Israel), Concordia University (Canada), the University of Mannheim (Germany) and Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium).

Before completing his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Connecticut in 1994, he received his undergraduate B.Sc. degree from Tufts University in 1989.

Please visit Stevenrogelberg.com for more information.

Event Location Details

Date

Thursday, February 29th 

Time

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Location

NYU Wasserman Center

The Wasserman Center for Career Development is New York University’s central career development resource, providing services and support to undergraduate students, graduate and graduate certificate students, postdocs, and alumni with a bachelor’s, master’s, graduate certificate, or doctoral degree from nearly every NYU school. 

133 E 13th Street, 2nd Floor

NY, NY