Sharing my 1:1 notes

I’ve been sharing my 1:1 notes with my reports for at least three and a half years.

I keep them in a shared Slack Canvas, so they’re always easy to find and both of us can add topics or notes ahead of our next 1:1.

The principle is simple: if the notes are about a conversation we had together, why should they belong only to me?

It also creates a useful constraint. My notes are deliberately neutral: what we discussed, decisions we made, things to come back to and actions we agreed on. Nor do I keep private interpretations of someone’s behaviour or performance elsewhere. If I wouldn’t be comfortable with someone reading what I wrote about them, I probably shouldn’t be writing it.

What has changed is how those notes are produced.

For about a year and a half, Gemini has been processing my meeting transcripts. Initially, I manually triggered a Gem after each 1:1, then pasted its output into the Canvas. Now the whole routine is automated with Claude.

My approach is shared by default and transparent about how the conversation is processed and what the output is used for. Before I start working this way with someone new, I explain that Gemini in Google Meet transcribes our meetings, how I use those transcripts, and ask for their consent. So far, everyone has been happy to opt in: they can see the benefits of having the same shared record of our conversations too.

That means I can be fully present instead of taking notes: listening properly, observing body language and picking up the signals that a transcript can’t capture.

Every day at 16:30, Claude processes the day’s transcripts, updates the shared notes and actions, and gives me the positive and constructive feedback I ask for on my own management: how I handled the discussions, what I did well, what I could have approached differently, and where I could improve my communication. It’s a bit like having a management coach who sat through every conversation.

I don’t agree with every piece of feedback, but it gives me something to think about at the end of every day.

The routine is now open-sourced internally for other managers to use, whether their notes live in Slack Canvas or somewhere else, and whether they choose to share them with their reports or keep them private.

The tooling is adaptable. The principle I care about is simple: let the machine handle the information, so I can focus my attention on the person in front of me and keep getting better at the human part of management.

Originally published as a LinkedIn post.