How do you set and follow up one-on-one action items?
Dongyoung Kim, CPO
A one-on-one action item is the next step agreed at the end of the conversation, and one sentence should say who will do what by when. Set only one or two per one-on-one, and write down what the leader will do as well as the team member. Then spend the first five minutes of the next one-on-one checking last time's action items. Keep to these three and you will have far fewer “same conversation every time” one-on-ones.
What is a one-on-one action item?
An action item is a promise that turns a one-on-one conversation into actual change. However good the conversation, if nothing is different the next week, the team member remembers one-on-ones as “just talk.” But once they see even small promises kept a few times, they start bringing up more important concerns.
Action items are not work assignments. A leader decides an assignment and hands it down; an action item is decided by both people in the conversation. So action items mostly hold things that rarely make the task list: the team member's growth, ways of working, and the leader's support.
Four marks of a good action item
- It has one owner. “Look into it together” easily becomes something nobody does. Even when two people work on it, pick one person to keep track.
- You can tell when it's done. You can't tell when “improve communication” is finished. Write it so it's visible whether it happened, like “share progress in one line the day before the weekly meeting.”
- Its deadline falls before the next one-on-one. If the deadline is further out than the next conversation, you can't check on it along the way. Break big work into a first step that can be done by the next one-on-one.
- It's in the team member's words. A sentence the team member said stays in memory longer than one the leader summarized. At the end, ask “Could you put what we decided today in one sentence?”
Action item examples: before and after
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Sort out work priorities | (Team member) By Friday, list the five tasks in progress in order of importance and share it |
| Study data analysis | (Team member) Before the next one-on-one, take three introductory SQL lessons and bring one thing learned |
| Fix the collaboration problem | (Leader) By Wednesday, agree on review-schedule rules with the engineering lead and report back |
| Practice presenting | (Team member) Give a five-minute talk at next week's team meeting, and (Leader) give one piece of feedback afterward |
How to set action items as you wrap up a one-on-one
Set action items five minutes before the end. Deciding in a rush after time runs out leaves only vague sentences. Follow these steps and five minutes is enough.
- Pick what from today needs action. Ask “Of what we talked about today, what should be different next week?”
- Cut the number down. If there are many candidates, keep only what matters most before the next one-on-one and move the rest to a future agenda.
- Attach an owner and a deadline. Confirm out loud who will do it and by when.
- Ask about the leader's action items. Ask “What can I do to help with this?” and if there's an answer, write it down as the leader's.
- The team member restates it, and it gets written down. Ending with both people looking at the same sentence prevents “That's not what I meant” later.
The leader's action items matter especially. Work the team member can't do alone, such as checking budget, coordinating with other teams, or arranging training, is the leader's to take on. When leaders keep their own promises first, team members don't take action items lightly either.
On days when the team member brings a concern, letting them choose the action through questions, rather than deciding it for them, is more likely to lead to follow-through. That approach is covered in How do you coach in a one-on-one?.
Action item tracking table
Put this table at the bottom of your one-on-one notes, and fill in the status and learning columns at the next one-on-one. How to structure the notes as a whole is covered in How do you structure a one-on-one doc?.
| Action item | Owner | Due | Status | What we learned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| List the five tasks in progress in order of importance and share | Team member | Friday | In progress | Two of the five were tied to another team's schedule |
| Agree on review-schedule rules with the engineering lead | Leader | Wednesday | Done | Review requests go out by Tuesday |
Four statuses are enough: done, in progress, not done, and canceled. Closing out items that are no longer needed as canceled is part of following up, too.
How to check action items at the next one-on-one
When the one-on-one starts, look at last time's action items before any new agenda. Keep it under five minutes, and focus on what was learned in doing them rather than on the result.
- When it's done: “How did it go? Was anything different from what you expected?” Acknowledge it specifically, however small.
- When it's in progress: “How far along is it, and what's left?” Set the deadline again.
- When it wasn't done: “What got in the way?” Look at the cause together rather than blaming. If the action item was too big, break it down.
- When the same item has rolled over three or more times: ask whether it is still needed, and either cancel it or bring it up as a topic for the one-on-one.
The leader reports on their own action items first, in the same way. Records built up like this can also show a team member's growth in the year-end review. For more, see How do one-on-ones complement performance management?.
Why action items fizzle out
| Reason | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| Nothing gets decided before the conversation ends | Reserve the last five minutes for action items |
| More than five get set at once | Keep only one or two before the next one-on-one |
| The record lives only in the leader's notes | Write them where both people can see |
| They aren't checked at the next one-on-one | Spend the first five minutes on last time's action items |
| Only the team member has to-dos; the leader has none | Ask every time how the leader can help, and write it down too |
| One-on-ones get canceled and the chance to check disappears | Keep a fixed schedule, and rebook right away when one is canceled |
Other reasons one-on-ones themselves don't work are laid out as eight points in Why do one-on-ones fail?.
Using a tool to take on follow-up
With one or two team members, a single document is enough. But as the team grows and one-on-ones repeat every two weeks, it gets hard for a leader to remember who promised what. A tool that carries action items into preparing the next one-on-one, and reminds you of recurring meetings, helps here. What to look for when choosing one is covered in How do you compare one-on-one meeting tools?.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q.How many action items should a one-on-one have?
- One or two for the team member and about one for the leader, roughly three in all, per one-on-one. The test is what can realistically be done before the next one-on-one.
- Q.Is it okay if a one-on-one produces no action items?
- Yes. Some conversations, such as a day when the team member opens up about a hard time, are about listening in themselves. Then leaving just a next topic, like “Let's pick this up again next time,” is enough.
- Q.What if a team member keeps not doing their action items?
- First look back at whether the size and deadline were realistic, and whether the team member chose them. If it keeps happening, it may be a workload or priority problem rather than the individual items, so make that the topic of the one-on-one.
- Q.How are action items different from OKRs or work goals?
- OKRs and work goals deal with results over a quarter or half year. One-on-one action items are short actions until the next one-on-one: intermediate steps toward a goal, or actions about ways of working and growth.
- Q.Who should write down action items?
- We recommend the team member writes them. If that's hard, the leader can, but check the wording with the team member before the conversation ends and keep it somewhere both can see.
ORBLIT
How Orblit helps
To make it easier to put this article into practice, Orblit helps in these ways.
01Action items without taking notes
Record the conversation and AI organizes a summary report and action items right away. Leaders don't need to type during the meeting.
02Start the next one-on-one from last time's promises
Each action item keeps an in-progress or done status and appears again on the screen for preparing the next one-on-one, so you can check on it.
03Don't lose the chance to check
Orblit works with Google Calendar and Google Meet, and once you set a one-on-one cycle it keeps track of recurring meetings with email and push notifications.