[echelon]

Then you haven't had a successful one.

The manager's job is to unblock and empower as much as anything.

Managers need insight into the health of their teams and how their reports think, feel, and operate. 1:1s are a fantastic sounding board for this.

[blahfuk]

This is the same ‘no true scotsman’ argument used with scrum. Over 15 years I’ve very rarely had anything productive come out of 1:1s. I think some people just require more support than others. I personally find them to be an enormous waste of time.