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Three months ago, I went from a group of 3 direct reports to a group of 17. I had been doing O3s with the smaller group without issue and with many positive results. I don't want to lose any more ground with my original reports (who are now part of the larger group of 17).

Most of the 17 are unavailable to meet for except the 30 minutes at the end of the day. I use those 30 minutes to schedule a weekly staff meeting with all of them. The other four days/week I schedule O3s. It takes me a month to get through meeting with each of them. In addition, this means that I meet with 4 of them on Friday afternoons, which is usually not very productive.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

juliahhavener's picture
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Why are they only available for 30 minutes at the end of the day?

Can you do them by phone? The last 30 minutes of most days is among the least effective. Once a month O3s are also less than ideal in most ways.

mdean's picture

Most of my reports are instructors who spend their time in a classroom or lab for 7 hours a day. First thing in the morning, they are usually preparing for the class that day. After class ends for the day is really my only opportunity. Each class runs 5 or 10 days. On any given week no more than two will not be teaching, but because of the complexity of the course materials and safety concerns around the equipment, substituting instructors so I can meet weekly is not possible.

In addition to their teaching responsibilities, the instructor also has multiple projects they are working on. I believe in O3s. I would really like to find a balance even with these constraints.

Mark's picture
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I know I'll be in trouble for saying this, but I've worked with all kinds of educational institutions, and I get this pushback all the time... and it's never completely accurate. There are ways around this.

Nevertheless, schedule the one on ones when you can, and DO NOT discriminate in favor of the 3 against the others. Do one on ones with everyone every week.

Mark