1:1s with a standing document

A 1:1 without prep slides into operational chatter — and that belongs elsewhere. You spend half an hour on the status of two tasks, both of you part ways, and the thing your report had on their mind for two weeks still doesn't come up. The fix is surprisingly simple: one shared document per person that both sides keep adding to.

A typical scenario

Petra manages a team of five and does a 1:1 with each of them every two weeks. Without a system, it went like this: the day before the meeting, she'd try to recall what was discussed last time, dig through email and Slack, jot down three points from memory — and still spend the first ten minutes of the meeting asking “so what's new.” Feedback she'd meant to give a month ago never made it into words, because she forgot to write it down.

Today she has one document per person in Notion. Whenever something occurs to her between meetings — praise, a question about a project, a topic for a career conversation — she adds it right there, while it's fresh. Her report does the same. At the meeting, they both just open the document and work through the points top to bottom. Nothing gets lost, nothing repeats, and it's easy to see what was discussed three months ago.

How to do it

1. Set up one permanent shared document per person on the team (Google Docs, Notion, or anything you can both see and both edit).
2. Both manager and report add points to the document continuously, between meetings: things that need solving, feedback, career topics, small things that would otherwise be forgotten. Don't wait for meeting day — write as soon as something occurs to you.
3. It helps to split the document into sections — say, “to discuss,” “feedback,” “career and growth,” “action items” — so different kinds of topics don't get mixed together.
4. During the meeting itself, work through the document top to bottom, point by point. Write conclusions and action items directly into it, not on a separate notepad or just in your head.
5. Before the next meeting, a quick skim through the document is all you need — the whole history is right there, so you never have to ask “wait, what did we actually agree last time.”
6. Don't delete older entries — just push them down or into an archive section. It's often useful to revisit them later, say during a quarterly review.

The best tools

• Google Docs — practically everyone already has it for free, zero barrier to start, just share one document.
• Notion — good if you want a template with a recurring structure and an overview of every team member's 1:1 document in one place.
• Microsoft OneNote / Word Online — the natural choice at companies on Microsoft 365, sharing works the same way as in Docs.
• Fellow.app or Lattice — specialized 1:1 and feedback tools for managers who want to connect meetings to goals and performance reviews.

What you get out of it

• Time: no more lengthy prep before every meeting — the document is ready continuously, not thrown together the night before.
• Better leadership: topics don't get lost, feedback arrives on time, and the person sees that their input actually goes somewhere.
• Peace of mind: nothing needs to be memorized — the document is your external memory for the whole team.
• A paper trail: during annual reviews or promotion conversations, you have it in black and white what was discussed and how it developed.

Pro tip

The first question in the meeting always goes to the other side: “What's on your mind?” Your points can wait — whoever speaks first sets the tone for the whole meeting, and it's better if that tone is their agenda, not your task check-in.