Time to Replace One-on-Ones With Group Meetings?
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Every so often people wonder, should one-on-one meetings be replaced by group meetings? To be clear, this means divesting from individual sessions between a report and lead. Instead, the entire team or portions of the team would meet with the lead, together.
If the thought has crossed your mind, is it because:
Individual one-on-ones take up too much time?
Group one-on-ones seem more efficient?
You want to ensure no one thinks they’re being bad-mouthed behind his/her back?
Believe this is the best way to be transparent?
It’s an opportunity for teammates to support and provide feedback to each other?
Whatever the reason, you probably have good intentions.
However, the answer is simply, no. Don’t do it.
Why not?
Group meetings and one-on-ones serve different purposes, therefore produce different outcomes.
The benefits from one-on-one meetings cannot be reproduced through group meetings.
A one-on-one is time a lead designates to a direct report to focus on:
Developing the relationship
Providing support for professional and personal development
Individuals have their own priorities and unique coaching needs. As a lead, how would you effectively address every report’s needs without reports wasting time listening to coaching that doesn’t affect him/her?
What about relationship development? Are you able to foster meaningful relationships with every single person on your team without having individual discussions?
Probably not.
Here are a list of reasons why group meetings do not work for these purposes:
The person who doesn’t like talking in large groups won’t talk. Big surprise. You’ll continue to learn about those who speak up, while the relationship with the quiet person stays stagnant.
Reports feel like another pawn in the game rather than individuals who bring unique values. This leads to lower engagement and higher turnover.
People often don’t want to share their personal struggles with one person, let alone a room full of people. The challenge he/she is facing could be affecting their ability to operate at the high level they normally do. Therefore, you miss out on opportunities to improve an individual’s performance for even the easy fixes.
Some people will not voice challenges he/she is experiencing with other teammates, which could lead to unmet goals. Now you’re missing out on improving the team’s overall performance.
For example, John is responsible for communicating key information to his teammates in order to meet deadlines. Unfortunately, John does not understand industry jargon, so he’s not relaying information correctly to his teammates. No one shares this detail with you at a group meeting because no one wants to put John on the spot. Eventually, the team misses a deadline because of this. If you had created the opportunity for the team to share this challenge in a private one-on-one, you would’ve known John needed additional coaching.
By not hosting one-on-one meetings, you’re ultimately risking the success of your team. These one-on-one meetings are additional opportunities for you to identify root causes of issues. You have the chance to correct potential courses before it’s too late.
So, when is it appropriate for a group meeting?
Group meetings are great when:
You have a message to convey or resources to share that affects/benefits the team as a whole. However, the message must not be a sensitive topic which could hold deep, emotional significance to any particular person.
You need everyone on the same page.
The entire team needs to hear feedback in real-time because the responsibilities are so interdependent.
You notice an issue among the team and bringing everyone together to discuss it is the best solution.
Essentially, any incidence where it is not more beneficial to have individual, private conversations.
One-on-ones are not going anywhere any time soon. One-on-one meetings create too much value for individual reports, you as a lead, and the whole team to replace with group meetings.
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