[gorgoiler]

Completely unimportant, but anyone else call them one to ones?

Where did this one on one thing come from? A one on one is a boxing match or a schoolyard fight, not an open chat.

8:2:1 is a ratio of cocktail ingredients. 16:9 is an aspect ratio. 1:7 is a steep hill to climb. To, by, and in respectively. The latter two would be weird choices but at least they’d be consistent with the syntax of x:y. “on” though?! Where did that come from?

Don’t say “Japanese poetry” :)

[mas-ev]

My random etymology guess here is one on one is from the origin of one vs one. One coming out ON top of the other. So one on one becoming simpler slang implying the same as versus.

Now one to one implies an equal relationship and especially in our field it feels weird imo to call them one to ones. Typical, you aren't equal levels in a 1:1 meeting. So maybe the one on one caught on because of the subtlety of one being on top of or above the other.

Face to face sounds too literal and agressive.

1:1 is an easy clear way to represent one on one. Although, we are forcing a double meaning on it. But hey that's the great thing about language. It's ever evolving.

Personally, in meeting titles I write PersonA/PersonB but I do type 1:1 over one on one when referring to the meeting type.

[darkerside]

The following is all opinion.

The whole point of a 1:1 is an opportunity to see your direct as a person and not as a direct. It puts you on equal playing ground for the moment, and as a manager, it is your responsibility to make sure your direct feels that way. When they trust you, they'll tell you how they really feel. That means being open about what they want out of their career, when they are thinking about leaving, when there's an uncomfortable problem on the team. That is what 1:1 is for, and that's why I always refer to them as a one-to-one and not a one-on-one.

[jq-r]

I always write 1on1. It makes it clear what it is. 1:1 seems like a scale indication.

[something2]

I'm no etymology professor, but if I had to guess it's related to the phrase tête-à-tête (literally head to head) in French. Kinda makes sense to me that it went from tête-à-tête -> head to head -> face to face -> one on one. Why it's written as "1:1", I haven't the faintest.

[kayodelycaon]

This isn’t very satisfying, but I would suspect simple language drift to explain it. Someone came up with one-on-one or one-to-one to describe this particular type of meeting and popularized its use. Eventually someone decided 1:1 was a good shorthand.

[alar44]

No.